Determination
by esama
Summary: In order to succeed, all you need is determination and perserverance. After Hikaru failed in exam, his's parents hire a tutor who teaches him what determination truly is. AU, HikaSai, eventually slash.
1. To Learn

**Determination**

**I chapter**

**To Learn**

Hikaru glared somewhat sulkily at the kitchen table, trying not to pout or cross his arms because he knew that it made him look like a little kid. That left him only with glaring as a way of express his displeasure because of this situation, but of course no one could see it because his father was out at work and his mother was in the hall, welcoming Hikaru's new tutor in.

_Tutor,_ the boy thought with annoyance, stifling the urge to kick the table's leg. Okay, his social studies marks were bad and he absolutely sucked in history, but he still didn't need a tutor! _Everyone in my class suck at social studies, so why do I have to get a tutor? They cut my allowance too. Hmph. I bet it's some old nerd who will be really annoying and boring and I will fall asleep every time he opens his mouth. _

Almost against his will he glanced towards the doorway leading to the hall before turning his eyes quickly away. He could hear his mother talking with the tutor but their voices were too low for him to hear what they were saying. He was supposed to be there greeting the tutor, but no way in hell would he act like he actually wanted this. If he would've had his way he would've been in his room right now, reading manga - but no, his mother had had to drag him downstairs.

_She's probably going to have us do this study session thing downstairs too so that she can be sure I won't skip,_ the boy mused sullenly, rolling his eyes at the thought before turning them determinately to the opposite direction from the doorway. _This sucks. I study more than enough at school and now I need to continue? This sucks, sucks, sucks…_

"You must be Hikaru then?" a voice spoke from the doorway, interrupting Hikaru's mental litany. The boy stopped his train of thought but wouldn't turn around. "Oh my," the so called tutor murmured after a moment of silence.

"Hikaru!" the boy's mother admonished. "You're acting rude. Stand up and greet your new tutor properly."

_Fine, let's see what kind of dork they got to teach me._ Frowning, Hikaru turned around, his frown only deepening a he saw the teen. According to his mother the elder boy was a senior high school student - therefore at least four years older than him. He didn't really look like what Hikaru had imagined he's look. For one, he was taller than Hikaru had expected. And two, he didn't look much like a boy.

"Are you a girl or a boy?" Hikaru asked somewhat maliciously, making his tutor's eyes widen with surprise. But the teen really looked like girl with his long hair and eyes - and he even had a girly face! _They got me a girly geek. That's even worse than a boring geek!_

"Hikaru!" Shindo Mitsuko gasped in horror. "That's…!"

"It's alright Shindo-san," the tutor said with small - and Hikaru's opinion utterly fake - smile. Then he turned his eyes, which had ridiculously long eyelashes, to Hikaru. "Hello, Hikaru-kun. My name is Fujiwara Sai. I will be your tutor from now on."

"Bah, I don't need a tutor," Hikaru muttered, turning his eyes away and again stifling the urge to fold his arms and pout. He knew that no matter how much he disliked this, Fujiwara wasn't probably going to go away, but Hikaru still didn't need to act like he liked it.

From behind him he could hear how his mother dragged a breath and almost started admonishing him again, but apparently Fujiwara stopped her again. "How about I'll just get started, hm? I'm sure Hikaru-kun will like me better once he will get to know me," the teen said with fake cheerfulness in his voice. "Where…?"

"Hikaru, did you clean your room like I asked you to?" Mitsuko asked sharply, making Hikaru frown.

"I did," the boy muttered and stood up. Without saying anything else he pushed past Fujiwara and his mother and headed upstairs. While Fujiwara, after giving Hikaru's mother few words of assurance, followed him, Hikaru was tempted to bang the door to the teen's face. It was another urge he stifled that time.

"You have a nice room," Fujiwara murmured while Hikaru sat to his bed sullenly. The teen gave him a slightly awkward look before coughing. "Um, where do you have your school books?" he asked then. As Hikaru glared towards his desk, the teen walked over to it and looked at the books the boy had piled there earlier. "Let's see then…"

As Fujiwara looked through the books, Hikaru was mentally kicking random things and huffing very loudly and angrily. There were thousands of things he could've been doing right now - like reading manga or watching TV or playing football with the other boys from his class. Or, if his parents hadn't cut his allowance, he could've been out eating ramen or something like that. Something fun. This was not fun at all.

"Hmm… Tempo reforms… You're mostly going over the late Edo period, it seems," Fujiwara murmured while looking at the failed test that had been between the pages of Hikaru's social studies book. When he got no answer from Hikaru he sighed, turning his eyes to the history book again and flipping over the pages. "Well, this shouldn't be too difficult, I hope," he murmured. "It would be easier if you were a little less hostile, Hikaru-kun."

"Well, I don't want a tutor," Hikaru murmured glaring at the high schooler. "It wasn't my idea. And don't even expect me to call you sensei."

"I wasn't going to ask such thing." Fujiwara raised his eyebrows with mild amusement before taking seat by Hikaru's desk. "Whether you like it or not, I was hired by your parents to make sure that you pass your social studies and that is what I am going to do," he said, thinking about it for a moment. "Would it make you more cooperative if I'd give you a treat if you do well?"

"I'm not a dog," Hikaru glared at the elder boy, though the idea of wheedling Fujiwara to give him treats did sound tempting. If he was going to forced to go through this, he might as well get something good out of it, right? That is if the teen was serious - he could be just lying to try and get Hikaru to play along.

"Even people earn prizes for jobs well done," Fujiwara said calmly. "So, what would you like? Chocolate bar maybe?"

Hikaru eyed him for a moment before deciding that the teen was serious. "Hmph, I don't like sweets. Treat me to ramen after the lesson."

Fujiwara smiled with satisfaction. "Alright, I will. But only of you do well," he said, placing Hikaru's history book to the desk. "I'm going to ask your mother if we can have another chair here so we can get started," he said, standing up. Soon after he brought a chair from Hikaru's father's home office to Hikaru's room, setting it beside the other chair by the desk.

"Come on then, let's get started," the long haired teen motioned Hikaru to take a seat. While the boy grudgingly did as asked, Fujiwara went through his desk in search for paper and pen. Then he set them before Hikaru. "There you go."

"What's this for?" Hikaru asked confusedly.

"For you to make notes, of course," Fujiwara answered, taking Hikaru's history book again and leading through the chapter about the Tempo period. "I'll read the chapter over once, then we will go through it again and makes notes of the important bits, alright?"

"Why do I have to make notes?" Hikaru asked, somewhat horrified about the concept of going through the chapter like that. There was lot of text in it! And lots of dates and names and all sort of stuff that the teacher always thought were important.

"Because it will help you remember the important facts. Trust me," the teen smiled. "I'll start reading now, so try and pay attention to what you hear."

With a soft huff Hikaru leaned his elbow to the desk and glared at the empty paper while Fujiwara started to read. After a moment the boy was forced to admit that the teen's way of reading was much better than the way the teacher read from the books. Fujiwara didn't drone like the teacher did and listening to it from so close rather than from the middle of the classroom made it somehow easier to listen to.

_And with him so close I can't do anything but sit here and listen,_ the boy thought with annoyance while leaning his chin to his elbow. Listening about the earthquake of Sanriku and uprisings that started in the eight year of Tempo soon turned somehow wooden and Hikaru sighed. Fujiwara's calm voice went from one rebellion to another and on from there and eventually Hikaru yawned.

"Do you have to read the whole thing all at once?" he asked with irritation while looking up as his mother brought them some drinks. She placed them to the table between the two boys before making her exist, apparently not wanting to disturb the lesson "Can't you go, I don't know, page at a time? Wouldn't that make it easier to remember."

"If you learn to go over things like this from the start, it will help you later on. Now concentrate," Fujiwara answered, took a sip of his tea and then continued to read on. Thankfully it didn't take him long to finish. After that he started asking questions. "Alright, who was Oshio Heihachiro?" he asked looking at Hikaru expectantly.

"A samurai," Hikaru rolled his eyes. "He led a rebellion."

Fujiwara sighed. "I guess that is good enough," he murmured. "How about the Morrison incident then?"

"People of Miura drove away American ship with cannons." That had been one of the most interesting parts of the text.

His tutor, however, didn't seem satisfied. "There was more to it, Hikaru-kun. Do you remember what happened after the ship left Miura? How about something special about the people onboard that ship?"

Hikaru frowned. It was said in the text that there had been someone there who had later helped with Japan's foreign relations, but… he couldn't remember the name. "Some politician guy, Oto something," he said shaking his head. "How do you expect me to remember all of that?"

"Otokichi Yamamoto, though he later changed his name to John Matthew Ottoson. He was a castaway, not a politician - but he was part Admiral Stirling's crew during the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty negotiations," Fujiwara answered calmly. "And I expect you to listen, concentrate and press the things you hear into your memory. How about the reforms, do you remember what they're about?"

Hikaru groaned as an answer.

Fujiwara hummed, leafing the book back. "Well, you will learn it eventually," he said calmly. "Now let's go through the chapter again. This time make notes."

Hikaru grumbled under his breath and took his pen. "You better buy me some good ramen."

"So far you haven't actually done well, Hikaru-kun," the teen answered calmly and started to read. With a pout Hikaru started to take notes of the chapter.

Not only did they go through the notes again after Fujiwara was done reading the chapter, but then they did the whole thing all over again with the next chapter. The teen read the chapter through once and then second time while Hikaru was writing notes and then he looked over Hikaru's notes to see if he had gotten all the major points.

"You are giving me no mercy with this, you… you evil person," Hikaru groaned, throwing his pen to the table after making corrections to his last notes. "I'm not going to remember all of this!"

"Yes you are," Fujiwara said confidently. "These two chapters are the ones you needed to study for the test you failed, correct?"

"Well they had similar stuff on them," Hikaru mumbled, leaning back and rubbing his hands over his eyes. "I don't think I can go over them again without losing my mind though."

"Well, our time is almost up anyway. Let's go over the notes again and then we can call it quits." Going over the notes wasn't about reading through them, no. Instead Fujiwara took the notes and asked Hikaru questions about them without letting him see the answers. The boy remembered more of them than he had expected to, but not all of them. In the end Fujiwara seemed mildly satisfied, though didn't deem his progress good enough for bowl of ramen.

"Maybe next time," the teen said while standing up. "Your parents hired me to give you lessons three times in a week, so… better luck next time, hm, Hikaru-kun?" he smiled. "You might want to go over the notes again by yourself in hour or two, giving your mind a moment to rest will probably help you memorise the text."

"Gah, no way. This was enough torture as it is. Just go away," Hikaru made a shooing motion with his hand.

The elder boy chuckled softly. "Very well," he said and bowed his head. "Till next time then, Hikaru-kun."

"Just go already. Shoo, shoo!"

After his tutor left him alone, Hikaru quickly left the desk, collapsed to his bed and reached for nearest piece of manga. He could distantly hear Fujiwara talking with his mother downstairs but determinately blocked it out, as well as the sound of the front door opening and closing. With a snort, the boy turned to his side and concentrated to the comic.

He couldn't quite explain why, but hour or so later he returned to his desk to reread the notes he had made.

x

The next time Fujiwara came over was only two days after the first visit but Hikaru's annoyance towards him and the whole tutoring business had cooled down remarkably. His mother on other hand gushed over Fujiwara like he was their family's personal saint or something.

"Um, did something good happen?" Fujiwara asked after Hikaru had led him to his room. He was wearing his white school uniform this time and carrying his school bag so he had probably came there straight from school. "Shindo-san seemed quite happy."

"I had a remedial test yesterday," Hikaru shrugged. "I found out today that I passed. Not with perfect marks or anything but I got sixty two percent in the test."

Fujiwara blinked and then smiled with satisfaction. "And your mother thinks it's because of my contribution?" he asked while placing his school bag by the door.

Hikaru snorted. "Of course it is, I would've failed that stupid test if you hadn't had me listening through those chapters so many times," he turned to look away, not really wanting to tell that he had also read the notes later a few times. That would somehow mean that Fujiwara won. "So, how are you going to torture me this time?"

The elder boy chuckled, walking to Hikaru's desk and taking his social studies book to his hand. "Let's see what you're studying at school first," he said, taking a seat and leafing through the book. "Are you satisfied with the sixty two percent score?" he then asked.

The boy huffed. "I passed, didn't I?"

"Yes, it seems you did, but sixty two percent is still far from full hundred," Fujiwara answered, glancing at him with a smile. "And if one study session took you from eight percent to sixty two, then I'd imagine raising your scores above the average won't be that hard at all. You can't be a dummy, so it's just matter of motivation."

The younger boy snorted, walking up to the desk and falling to sit on the extra chair. "I'm not a geek… like some," he said.

"How rude," the elder boy said with something that looked frightfully like a pout. "But having good scores doesn't necessarily mean that you're a geek. And with good scores you can get into better schools of course. You're going to junior high after this term, correct? Do you have one picked out already?"

"Haze Junior High," Hikaru shrugged, looking at the uniform Fujiwara was wearing appraisingly. "And you, apparently, go to some really fancy school."

Fujiwara smiled fleetingly but said nothing to that. "Well, knowing your basics and having good marks will help you even if you go to a school that isn't as… demanding as some. And who knows, you might go to a fancy senior high school yourself," he answered, placing the book to the table. "Is this the chapter you're going over in school right now?" he asked.

"Yeah, though we just glanced it through - we were going over the tests," Hikaru shrugged.

"Reading a head won't harm you. You have a paper and pen?" Fujiwara asked and with a sigh Hikaru took some out. "Good. I shall start reading then."

This time, unlike last time Hikaru tried to listen and memorise what the elder boy was reading. It was mostly about the economics of the late Tokugawa shogunate and the political struggle of the time, which was what Hikaru was weakest at, but listening to now would help him with making the notes - and with the questioning Fujiwara would no doubt too at the end of the study session.

"You're being a bit more cooperative than the last time," Fujiwara mused with satisfaction once he was done reading the chapter.

"Hm," Hikaru shrugged, biting the end of his pencil. "Isn't the late Tokugawa shogunate also called the Bakumatsu?" he asked.

Fujiwara raised his eyebrows with surprise. "Very good," he said with a smile.

"Not really, it was in _Rurouni Kenshin_," Hikaru answered, glancing towards his bookshelf where he had some of the manga lined up.

The teen chuckled. "Well, I hope you won't get all your facts from it, no matter how good, manga usually twists history around a bit," he said. "Ready to go through the chapter again?" he asked, but paused as the door was opened and Hikaru's mother walked in with some tea. "Thank you, Shindo-san," Fujiwara thanked her as she placed the tray to the table.

"You're welcome, Fujiwara-kun. Study hard, Hikaru," Mitsuko smiled to them and then made her exit.

Hikaru took a sip of his tea before placing the cup down beside him and taking his pen. "Okay, I'm ready to take notes. So shoot." With a soft chuckle, Fujiwara started to read again.

While going through the notes a bit later, Hikaru found to his relief that he remembered most of the things they had gone over. Fujiwara seemed immensely pleased too. "See, paying attention pays back," he said, nudging the boy's side almost proudly. "In fact, I think you've done well enough for some ramen."

"Huh?" Hikaru looked up with surprise. "You were serious about that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yes, I was," Fujiwara nodded with a smile, placing the notes to the table. He took his tea, which was no doubt cool by now, and took a sip of it. "You even made better notes this time. You're picking this up so fast that I'm starting to think that you don't need a tutor as much as your parents think you do. Your memory seems good, you just lack… motivation. And maybe direction."

"Hm. Yeah, well, whatever. I still hate studying," Hikaru muttered before pouncing up from his seat. "But never mind that. You're gonna treat me ramen so let's go already!"

Fujiwara chuckled and stood up as well. As Hikaru hurried out of the room, the elder boy picked his school bag and then followed. After exchanging few words with Hikaru's mother and telling her where they were going, Fujiwara followed Hikaru out of the house. "I hope you know a place where we can eat ramen. I'm afraid I don't eat much ramen so I don't know any places where we could get some."

"There's a great place near the train station," Hikaru nodded, pointing to the direction they were already heading. Then he looked at the taller boy. "Though why don't you eat ramen? Why not? It's the greatest food there is!"

"I prefer sashimi and sushi," the elder boy answered calmly, a bit amused by his antics. "Though I suppose ramen is good as well, I just do not eat it often."

"Figures that you'd be a guy with that sort of taste, Fujiwara," Hikaru muttered. "By the way when you do that serene amusement thing you _really_ look like a girl."

The high schooler pouted. "That is really not polite, Hikaru-kun. And you can call me Sai, if you like to," he said, raising his hand somewhat self consciously to touch his hair. "It's a bit awkward being called Fujiwara all the time. Sai is more comfortable, no?"

"Fine, Sai then," the younger boy said, looking at him curiously, leaning back a bit to see the other boy's hair. It almost reached the teen's hips in mass of bluish black. "Why'd ya grow your hair so long anyway when you look so girly in the first place? I bet people mistake your gender all the time."

"You have the tact of a wild dog, Hikaru-kun," Sai sighed, lowering his hand and looking away with little bit of embarrassment on his face. The reaction made the younger boy certain he had hit bull's-eye with the last remark. "And I just like long hair. I've been growing my hair long for… seven years, give or take."

"You've been looking girly for seven years? And willingly? You're weird," Hikaru muttered.

"Well, why do you bleach your bangs?" the elder boy asked in return, reaching out to capture a strand of Hikaru's light shaded bangs to his fingers and tugging it gently. "They're pretty long in comparison to the rest of your hair as well. Actually, in comparison to you hair, mine is actually rather normal."

"Dream on. My hair looks _cool_, yours just looks girly," Hikaru huffed reaching out and pulling a lock of Sai's long hair in retribution. He grinned slightly as the elder boy quickly tried to shield his hair with his hands. "You even act girly," he pointed out, releasing the strand of captured hair. "You girly boy."

"Idiot," Sai pouted while gathering his hair to his fist and holding it protectively away from Hikaru. "You should try and learn to respect your elders."

"Hah, whatever. But I guess it's your business if you want to look like a girl," the younger boy grinned at the elder one who gave him a somewhat hurt look in return. _This guy is pretty easy to fluster,_ Hikaru thought, his grin widening as he looked forward. "Oh, there's the ramen place!"

"Thank gods, maybe food will make you less of a jerk," Sai muttered

"I'm sure you like me better when you get to know me," Hikaru threw his words back at him with a smirk and headed ahead towards the ramen restaurant. Behind him he could hear his tutor's helpless snort of amusement.

x

Another Hikaru no Go fic and with _Trial and error_ still so badly under work... well, can't be helped. I ended up liking this fic more once I got the idea. I'm a fickle creature when it comes to writing.

This fic is obviously AU, with Sai being a living breathing teenager and all that. This is also Hikaru and Sai centred story, so we won't be seeing much about any other characters. Hikaru is currently in his last year in grade school whilst Sai is in his first year in senior high, meaning that Hikaru is some 12 years old whilst Sai's about 16. This will eventually become slash, no use in denying that, but that won't happen in a while. And yes, Go will serve it's role in this story - eventually.

Unbetaed. The historical facts came from Wikipedia, I don't really care if they're accurate or not since they're not the focus of the story.


	2. To Achieve

**II chapter**

**To Achieve**

_Hikaru really needs to work with his attitude,_ Sai mused to himself, looking over the boy's notes from school while Hikaru struggled to fill in a small test the teen had made for the boy. Hikaru's notes were absolute mess and he had tendency of drawing rather mean things to his notebooks and school books - probably out of boredom during a class. It was no wonder he got bad scores, judging by his notes he almost never paid attention to what was being taught.

_But he is no dummy,_ the elder boy thought, glancing at the boy who was absently poking his own nose with the end of his pencil while trying to remember the answer to one of the questions. _His memory isn't bad if it's used properly and he's actually rather good at remembering in long sequences…_

Originally Sai had been planning to use long sequence learning only once to scare Hikaru into obedience. It was a method he used with himself, not stopping in middle of reading to try and remember it all but reading it through at one go. He had the sort of memory that could memorise things like that but it rarely worked for others - if anything, they were intimidated by the mere thought of studying like that.

_I thought that I would force Hikaru through my own studying methods once as a scare tactic before easing up and going with his own pace - that way he would appreciate the slower pace more… But only after one study session he actually passed a social studies test - and such high score too in comparison to the test he lost,_ Sai mused, holding back a chuckle so that he wouldn't disturb the boy. He had forsaken the thoughts of slowing down after that. _And he actually adapted to my usual speed so quickly. Slowing down at that point would've just hindered his learning abilities._

And Hikaru certainly had a learning ability. He just wasn't interested in using it. He was abrasive and rude by nature, only interested about his own amusement and on top of that he seemed to favour overall laziness. In short; a slacker. That hindered the boy down to the pace of snails where he should've been leaping forward at the speed of track runners. _If his personality wasn't as it is, I think he could be among the best students of his class at least._

Sai shook his head and placed the notebook down and brushed his fingers thoughtfully over his lips as Hikaru started to write down something to the paper. When pressed to it, Hikaru could really push back but the initial push had to be hard. During their first session the push had indeed been hard - not only had Hikaru been forced to study with Sai, but his allowance had been cut as well. And then Sai had used such a harsh teaching method on him… and Hikaru had come out a bit stronger from it.

_Why do I have the feeling that I should keep turning the pace harsher and harsher to it, demanding more and more? It seems so cruel but at the same time I get the feeling that with just enough pressure he could really turn into something good…_

"Okay, I'm done," Hikaru said, slamming his pen down and leaning back as if the paper had suddenly turned poisonous. "I don't even want to look at that thing again!"

Sai chuckled, reaching to take the paper from in front of him. Just at the first glance he could tell that the boy had done well with it - each question had been answered with surprising length, answering the questions with more information than was actually necessary. _Well, I did press the importance of details during our last session,_ Sai mused with mild satisfaction while reaching for the history book to check if Hikaru had gotten the facts right.

The boy had gotten few minor things incorrect - a certain date was off by a month and he hadn't been able to remember the names of few people - but overall Hikaru had answered all the questions correctly. "Very good, Hikaru-kun," Sai nodded with satisfaction. "I think you've deserved a bowl of ramen today."

"Alright!" the boy punched his fist to the air with victorious grin. "I definitely deserve some compensation for filling that thing up. And my hand is cramping up after all that writing," he muttered shaking his hand as if to loosen it up. "Can we go now or do you have something else to annoy me with?"

Sai chuckled, placing the paper down. "I think we're done for today. Just reread the notes you made earlier after you come home and that'll be enough," he said, smiling as the boy hurriedly jumped up and stretched maybe with little bit of exaggeration.

_For all his moaning, his concentration isn't bad either,_ the elder boy thought, quickly organizing Hikaru's desk before standing up as well. Hikaru was already hurrying downstairs while Sai picked his jacket from Hikaru's bed and pulled it on.

"You're going out for ramen again?" Shindo-san asked when Sai descended the stairs.

"Yes, Hikaru-kun did very well again," Sai nodded with smile, glancing towards Hikaru who was already pulling his shoes on. "He's not bad when he puts his mind to it."

"Sadly, he rarely does," the woman sighed with mild amusement. Then she leaned in. "I'll add the price of Hikaru's meals to your pay," she whispered to him. "With the amount of ramen he no doubt eats it must come costly for you."

Sai chuckled. "There is no need, Shindo-san. Ramen isn't exactly expensive cuisine," he whispered back.

"Come on, Sai, let's go already. I'm hungry!" Hikaru demanded, calling for his tutor's attention. With a chuckle the elder boy shrugged his shoulders at the woman before joining Hikaru and slipping his feet to his shoes. Then, as Hikaru turned to leave, Sai bowed gracefully to Shindo-san as his good bye, before following his abrasive student outside.

"What were you whispering with mom?" Hikaru asked as they headed towards their usual ramen place.

"She offered to pay back the ramen I buy you," Sai answered, seeing no real reason to hold the truth from the boy. "I turned her offer down."

"Mom offered you extra money and turned it down?" the younger boy asked with a look of utter disbelief in his face. Then he made a face he always did when Sai was doing something he found either girly or just strange. "What's _wrong_ with you?"

The teen chuckled. "Ramen is a cheap food to buy, and as it is I'm not exactly low on cash," he shrugged his shoulders with a smile.

"You aren't?" Hikaru asked confusedly. "Why are you tutoring me then? I thought you were doing it exactly because you wanted the money. Isn't that why people tutor kids like me?"

"Hm," Sai thought about it. He had posted the offer for tutoring sessions for grade school children mostly because he hadn't had much to do. Other than going to school and to the classes he was taking, he really didn't have much to fill his time with. "I guess it's because I was bored. I thought it would be interesting experience - and that I might be able to do some good while at it," he answered after a moment of thought.

"You _are_ weird," Hikaru shook his head with what looked like grudging awe. "Don't you really have better stuff to do? Like, I don't know, hanging out with your friends and such…" the boy trailed away as Sai frowned at the words. Hikaru blinked. "Oh," he then said a bit guiltily. "You don't have any friends, do you?"

"Not really, no," Sai answered, holding back a grimace and smiling instead. He wasn't all that well liked in his school. It was a very demanding school, one of the best in the country - the sort of that took only the best and brightest students. The competition with grades was part of every day life and Sai… well, he had no competition.

He was only in his first year but he was also the top of the class and his score percentage was amongst the highest in the entire school, rivalling with the sempais. He had yet to turn in a paper, an assignment or a homework that got less than perfect score - and with his memory he barely needed to study at all. On top of that he had sum of… quirks that made people dislike him.

_Only reason I'm not bullied is because uncle is in the board of school governors,_ Sai mused before shaking the thought away quickly. _Well, my classmates are too intelligent for that sort of behaviour anyway._ Then he glanced at Hikaru who had fallen quiet because of his words. "Hikaru-kun?" he asked softly.

"It's because you're so girly," the boy said with look of serious determination on his face. "You should cut your hair. People would like you more."

"Leave my hair alone, it's fine as it is," Sai chuckled, knowing that Hikaru was in his own way trying to cheer him up. The younger boy just wasn't too good at it. "And I'm fine as I am as well. Like this I have time for other things - like teaching you."

"You shouldn't be proud of something like that," Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Tutoring is stuff for nerds and geeks and such…" he gave the taller boy a sideways look. "You do have other stuff to do than just teaching me, right? Because that would be really sad and pathetic."

"Thank you for your concern about my life style, Hikaru-kun, but I assure I am fine," Sai laughed with a shake of his head. "And I do have other things to do."

"Yeah?" Hikaru asked almost challengingly and folded his arms. "Like what?"

"I'll have you know that I take lessons, myself."

The younger boy stared at him for a moment before sighing. "You're hopeless. Hopeless girly geek."

"They're music lessons," Sai specified with a chuckle.

"Then you're a musical hopeless girly geek. I don't see how that makes any difference," Hikaru rolled his eyes. After a moment he threw a look at the other and sighed. "What sort of music then? Guitar, piano…?"

"No," the elder boy smiled. "I play the cello," he said, stretching his hands before making a demonstrating motion with them, holding his left one as if on the strings and right one as if he was holding a bow. "I've been playing it ever since I was about eight years old. One day I hope to play professionally."

"A cello?" Hikaru asked confusedly. "I've never seen a band with a cello player."

"Not in a band, in an orchestra," Sai shook his head with a soft laugh. He already played in his school orchestra, but though there were some competitions they went, and plenty of solo competitions Sai took part in alone, he wanted more. He wanted to play in packed concert halls with full symphony orchestra, he wanted to play cello symphonies and concertos…

"I don't get it. Sounds kinda boring," Hikaru mused, lifting his hands up and crossing his fingers behind his neck. "Why'd you want to play music as occupation?"

"Because I like music and I like playing the cello," Sai shrugged and glanced at him curiously. "What do you want to do when you're done with your schooling?"

Hikaru frowned and hummed thoughtfully. "I haven't really thought about it," he hummed, stretching his hands. "It's gonna be something cool in any case."

The elder boy chuckled. "If you want to do something _cool_, you need to start early on. Even if you decide at age of twenty that you want to be, say, an Olympic level athlete, it won't happen just like that."

Hikaru huffed. "Well, we can't all be girly weirdoes like you who decide what they want to do with their lives at the age of eight," he muttered, looking up as they arrived to the ramen restaurant. Pushing the door open, he held for the other boy. "And I don't want to go to Olympics. Sheesh. I'll decide what I want to do when I decide it and that's that."

"At some point it might be too late for you to become something you might want to become later. For example, if I hadn't started playing early on it might be too late for me now to decide that I want to be in orchestra," Sai explained. "Or at least it would take me much longer to get there than it will now. It takes time to learn to play an instrument after all."

Hikaru groaned as they search for a table and sat down. "You're just like teacher at times, I swear," he muttered and waved the waiter over. "Miso for me. He's paying again," he added, pointing at Sai.

The elder boy sighed. "I'll take the same," he said and with amused smile the waiter headed off to get their orders. "Sometimes teachers have a point. It's important to plan these things sometimes, Hikaru-kun. And sometimes it's fun and rewarding to work towards goals," Sai added. "I have enjoyed every moment of playing cello ever since I picked it up."

"Yeah, but you're weird," Hikaru sighed, leaning his elbow to the table and his chin to his palm. "I dunno, Sai. I have never really thought what I'd do. I'm just twelve, it's kinda far away for me."

"Well, you can start thinking about it now," the elder boy answered with a smile. "How about fire-fighter or police officer?"

"Could you start with anything a little more clichéd?" Hikaru snorted before shaking his head. "Nah. I don't think I'd want to do that sort of stuff. I mean, it is pretty cool but in the same time… I dunno. Just doesn't feel right for me."

"How so?"

"It wouldn't be awarding. Or maybe it would be in that weird justice and public service sort of way, but it wouldn't be… remarkable. Yeah, that. Whatever I do, I want it to be special and out of ordinary," Hikaru answered with a frown and thought about it seriously. "I wanna do something incredible."

"Astronaut then?" Sai asked with teasing smile.

"Not that incredible," Hikaru answered with grimace while the other laughed. The younger boy scrunched his nose. "And wouldn't I have to study like really much to be astronaut? I mean, they only take in really smart people, right?"

"Probably so," Sai chuckled. "Musical career could be pretty original," he then offered with a sneaky smile.

"Stop trying to pimp that stuff to me. I like to listen to music but that's about it," the boy huffed, looking away with a pout. "Besides, mom always says that I have the same sense of rhythm as tone deaf wall."

Sai grinned amusedly at him. "I see," he said, tapping the table with his fingers while thinking about possible occupations for the boy before him. "I guess professions like teacher and things like that are out of question," he mused and hummed thoughtfully. "Is there anything you are good at? Some hobby maybe?"

"Well, I guess I'm pretty good at sports. I play soccer pretty often - I'm not in a team or anything though," Hikaru answered. "It's kinda fun too, but I don't think I would want to play sports all my life. It seems sorta useless for me."

"Useless how?"

"Well, what do you accomplish by playing soccer really? It's fun to play it but I don't want to spend my life chasing a ball and knowing that only achievement I could manage is kicking it into a net," Hikaru shrugged. "Sure, if I'd be really good I could maybe become famous and maybe win medals and awards and trophies and such, but still… I want more than that."

_Heh. When I can worm it out of him, Hikaru can be surprisingly deep,_ Sai mused, hiding his smile behind his fingers. _In a bit backwards way maybe._

"Also, I don't think I could spend my life doing the same thing in the same way every single day," the younger boy added. "I think it would get a bit repetitive in the end."

"Well, playing against different opponents, in different fields… it should add some variety," Sai pointed out.

"Yeah but it's still the same game and I'd still be chasing the same ball. I know that some can live with that, but I don't think I'd be able to," Hikaru answered before frowning. "And to be honest, I'm not exactly brilliant in soccer. It's fun and I guess I'm decent at it, but… but I don't think I'd ever be a star player or anything."

"Hm… not sports then," Sai murmured, and looked up as the waiter brought their orders. "Thank you," the teen thanked the man while Hikaru reached for chopsticks. The boy handed him a pair as well, saving Sai from the trouble of getting them himself. "And thank you Hikaru-kun."

"You're too polite. And stop calling me Hikaru-kun, it sounds weird coming from you," the boy murmured while gathering some noodles with his chopsticks. "Hikaru's just fine."

"Alright then," Sai chuckled. Then, watching how the boy enjoyed his first mouthful of ramen, he smiled amusedly. "How about ramen chef?"

"Nah. I'd end up eating all the food I make," Hikaru answered after swallowing. "And I bet I'd be a lousy cook anyway. Also, ouch," he grimaced and made a fanning motion towards his mouth. "Burned my tongue."

"You shouldn't eat so hastily." The elder boy chuckled, gathering some noodles himself and gently blowing to them to cool them down enough to be eaten without such problems. "Architect then?" he then offered. "Or maybe an artist or a designer hm… Heh, how about fashion designer? That's quite unusual occupation." He grinned.

"How about no?" Hikaru answered with a grimace. "I don't wanna make clothing."

"You could make jewellery," the elder boy said with a grin before lifting the now cooled noodles to his lips.

"No way. And stop offering girly occupations or I'll throw something at you."

"Alright then," Sai chuckled after swallowing, glancing to their left where the waiter was now hurriedly turning the TV's volume down. There was some drama going in the television and two women were arguing in it rather loudly. "How about actor?" the teen then asked. "That's rather unordinary, isn't it?"

"That's the most clichéd thing ever. Everyone wants to be an actor," Hikaru snorted, turning his eyes to the television as well. He grimaced, turning his eye away. "Acting all lovey dovey or dramatic in some afternoon drama… nope, not for me."

Sai smiled before shaking his head and sighing. Apparently finding a suitable occupation for the younger boy wouldn't happen that easily. _Well, he's twelve. There's still time for him,_ he mused and continued eating.

"Oi, delivery," call came from the counter of the restaurant and the waiter went to hurriedly get the box. "It's to the Go-salon next door," the cook said and with a nod the waiter headed off.

Sai glanced after him and then turned to look at Hikaru. "You know, some people make their living by playing Go and Shogi and such," he said thoughtfully, looking back to the days when he had used to think about that sort of occupation too. It seemed like ages ago but still the thought tugged at a certain special string in his heart, thinking about Go as a profession.

Hikaru snorted without looking up. "I don't even play Shogi or Go. Old men's games, both of them," he muttered and slurped some ramen.

Sai smiled sadly, looking down to the bowl of ramen before him. "Yeah, I suppose," he murmured.

The younger boy looked up to him and then frowned at the look on his face. "Don't tell me you play them," Hikaru said. "Because you're weird enough as it is. Seriously."

"No, I don't play them. But I used to - just Go, though," Sai answered and lifted some noodles from the broth. "That was before I started playing the cello."

"You played Go when you were eight?" Hikaru raised his eyebrows.

"My father taught me when I was pretty young - he was an enthusiastic player and loved Go very much. Somewhat of a Go fan, I guess," Sai smiled fondly at the memory before shaking his head and turning his attention to his food. "I think I learned more from the Go related books and magazines he collected, than from him, though."

The younger boy frowned up to him and then straightened his back. "Is he dead? You're using past tense," he then pointed out somewhat rudely before grimacing, apparently realising how personal the question was.

Sai sighed somewhat amusedly and nodded. "Yes, he died when I was eight," he answered and then smiled as Hikaru sighted awkwardly in his seat. "It's alright, Hikaru-kun. I'm well over it. It was pretty long ago," he said. "I still have plenty of happy memories about him, plenty of precious mementos."

Hikaru still looked a bit awkward as he nodded. "That's good, I guess," he muttered and then seemed to concentrate solely to his ramen, possibly to avoid asking any more rude questions.

The conversation was stalled until they finished and Sai had paid for the food. After they had left the ramen shop, Hikaru broke the silence between them. "You've wanted to be a cellist since you were really young," he said thoughtfully and glanced at the other. "You never wanted to be anything else?"

"Well… before I started playing cello I did plan to play Go professionally," Sai answered. "My father told me that I was very good, so I thought that I might make it. I liked playing Go as much as he did, I still love the game even though I don't play, but… it just wasn't for me, I guess." The high schooler stretched his hands and peered up to the darkening sky. "It's getting late. Come on, I'll walk you home."

"You don't need to," Hikaru frowned. "I'm not _that_ young."

The elder boy hesitated and then nodded. "Alright then, if you're sure," he then said, bowing his head a bit. "I will see you next Monday, Hikaru-kun."

"Just Hikaru," the boy said, rolling his eyes. But just before he was about to head off, he suddenly stopped. "Oh yeah, I completely forgot," he muttered, turning around to look at the other again. "Haze has a festival this Sunday. My friend asked me to go with her. I told her I wasn't gong to, but… Do you wanna go?"

"Huh?" Sai asked with surprise. "To Haze Junior High's festival?" He raised his hand to his chin with a bit awkward look on his face. "I guess it could be fun. I'm in senior high myself, though…"

"Well, if you don't want to, it's fine," Hikaru shrugged, turning to look away. "Haze's a pretty average school anyway so it might not interest someone like you… I just thought that since you take this tutor business so seriously…"

Sai was quiet for a moment before sighing and smiling. "Alright, I'll go with you," he said. "When is it?"

"Akari asked me to be there around two pm," the boy answered with a relieved grin. "You know where Haze is, right?"

"Yes, I know," teen nodded.

"Alright. See you there then, Sai," the younger boy turned to leave. "Oh, and thanks for the ramen!"

"You're welcome. Good night, Hikaru," the high schooler smiled. Then, after a moment of just staring after other boy, he turned around to the direction of the train station and started to walk. _Festival, huh? Might be fun,_ he thought while pushing the thoughts of Go and his father from his head. _It's been a while since I've gone to a festival just for the sake of going…_

_Hm. Maybe we'll find some club there that might interest Hikaru. That might help him with the occupation selection,_ he mused while waiting for the train. They hadn't been all that serious about the whole aspect of picking Hikaru an occupation, but Sai was used to planning for the future so he couldn't help but think of it in slightly different light than Hikaru had. _He has potential to be good at what ever he sets his mind to, but his character is lacking. It might be different if he had a goal of some sort but as it is… Oh well, I'm sure we'll figure out something eventually._

When the train finally came he stepped inside to find that it was pretty full and he had to stand. Taking support of a pole he stood near to the doors and gazed out of the window. Against his will his thought strayed back to Go and the potential of all the things he usually determinately avoided thinking. If only he had gotten the chance to try the pro exam…

x

It's impossible to separate Sai from Go. They're like... half synonyms. Seriously. Does anyone dare to guess what occupation Hikaru will choose? I bet not one of you will get the right one. And yeah, it will take a while before we get to the romance part of the story. That's why it's marked as friendship fic too, since that's mostly what this is about - but the romance will be there and nothing can stop it. And the other Hikago characters have really minor roles in this fic, as this is Hikaru and Sai centred story.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and see ya soon, I hope.


	3. To Persist

**III chapter**

**To Persist**

"I was starting to think you weren't going to show up. And don't you look like your usual girly self," Hikaru snorted when he finally saw Sai walking to his direction. The elder boy was dressed into a white jacked and black pants and neither piece of clothing was exactly masculine in style. "I'm starting to think you want to look like girl, Sai."

"Hmph, what a greeting," the elder boy pouted before glancing around. "Where is your friend?"

"She came with some other friends of her - I saw them just a little while ago," Hikaru shrugged, motioning towards the yard of the Haze Junior High, which was filled with stalls, people and noise. "She's gonna hang around with them since I'm gonna hang around with you."

"Oh, alright then," Sai nodded, looking at the stall filled school yard curiously. "Have you had the chance to look around yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you. Come on, let's check it out," Hikaru turned, motioning him to follow. Sai quickly followed him, looking around curiously but staying at Hikaru's tail. "Is there something you'd like to see or something?" the younger boy asked.

"Not particularly. I doubt there's nothing here I haven't seen before - I've seen school festivals before after all," the teen answered. "Also, shouldn't we be going with what you want to see? This is going to be your school after all, so you should see what it has to offer. Maybe you'll find a club you'll like."

"Yeah, maybe. Right now I want some takoyaki. Akari gave me a ticked for free packet of them - her sister's working at the takoyaki stall," Hikaru pulled the ticket out of his pocket before looking around to see where the takoyaki stall was. "Ah, over there. Come on, Sai."

"Yes, yes," the other said, quickly following him to the stall.

There Hikaru was given a packet of six dumplings for the ticket, half of which the boy decided to generously give to Sai. "You keep buying me ramen so…" he shrugged offering the packet to the elder boy while they walked away from the stall.

"How very gracious of you," Sai chuckled, piercing one of the dumplings with a stick and lifting it from the container. "So, is there anything here you would like to see?"

"Not really. Let's just look around," Hikaru shrugged glancing around to see if there was anything interesting near by. After a moment of thought he just shrugged and walked onwards, taking a look anything that they came across. "I thought about the whole thing about jobs yesterday," the younger boy said while they were looking at a stall which was making okonomiyaki. "I think I figured something I'd want to do."

"Oh, really?" Sai asked with excited curiosity. "What is it then?"

"I was watching TV and there were this document in it that got me interested," Hikaru said thoughtfully, lifting his hand to count. "For one, it would be a incredible job, and unordinary one. For two, it would be varying - I wouldn't have to do same thing every day, probably. And for three, it's pretty damn cool too." He looked up to the long haired teen and grinned. "I want to be a stuntman."

"A _what_?" the other asked with shock, his eyes widening slightly. "That's a… isn't that pretty dangerous? And I thought you didn't like the idea of acting career."

"Well it's not really acting," Hikaru shrugged with a grin, thinking back to the document. "I'd only need to do the cool stuff and that's it. Oh, it would be awesome, I could get to jump off buildings and stuff. The document said that there' always safety gears and stuff for stuntmen, but it would still be pretty awesome… And it would be sort of rewarding too because my stunts could be in TV or even movies."

Sai gave him a slightly suffered look, his eyebrow twitching slightly before he bit into the takoyaki and swallowed it. "It's still rather serious occupation, I think. You could get injured often," he said with a worried frown, apparently not liking the idea too much.

"Not if I'm really good and can avoid that sort of thing," the younger boy said, giving him a exasperated look. "I thought you'd be all happy that I picked future occupation."

"I would've been happier if it had been something safer," Sai sighed, tapping his lips thoughtfully with the takoyaki stick. "How serious are you about the stuntman thing, though?" he then asked, raising his eyebrows. "Maybe you'll think of a better occupation later on and…"

"No I won't," Hikaru frowned, getting a bit annoyed that the other wasn't agreeing with him. The fact that the other was disagreeing with him made him all the more resolute about the idea too. "I'm gonna be a stuntman and that's it." He took one of the dumplings and chomped it down determinately. "So there."

The teen looked at him for a moment thoughtfully before sighing. "Alright then," he said. "I guess you should then take look at possible martial arts clubs. Maybe some sport would help you too - gymnastics maybe…"

"What are you talking about?" Hikaru asked confusedly.

"Well, martial arts might not be as popular with movies and television series as they used to be, but that might change - and having athletic hobbies will help you. Stuntman's work is mostly done with the body after all, having that aspect of you fit should help," Sai mused. "Don't you think?"

"Hmm… maybe," the younger boy nodded, thinking about it. He hadn't really given any thought about it - the document had been mostly about explosions and accident, car chases and such, but Sai had a point. "Hm. Making stunts in some Jidaigeki could be cool. I'd probably have to learn kendo though," he mused, frowning. What had been a cool idea was turning pretty complicated now.

"Still want to do it?" Sai asked amusedly.

"Yes I do," Hikaru snapped, glaring at him. "Let's go check if this place has a kendo club."

Haze had not only kendo club but also judo club, both which seemed rather popular. Hikaru and Sai talked with the members for a while, finding out that they had both taken part in tournaments and competitions. They also trained separately because few members were in both of the clubs.

"Hmmhmm…those people start insanely early in the morning for judo. Dunno if that's is enough, though," Hikaru murmured once they had moved past the club stalls. "Judo's mostly grappling I think…" Knowing how to fight with his fists and feet would maybe be more useful. Maybe.

"There are other options, martial arts are aplenty after all. And you can learn outside Haze too, you know," Sai mused. "You might want to try and do some research on the subject of martial arts and the occupation of stuntmen. To find out what sort of skills will be useful for you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do that," Hikaru sighed and stretched his hands. Then he noticed a table between two stalls which both sold snacks. "Hey, Sai. Your old-man-game is being played over there," he said, pointing the table where a Haze's student was demonstrating go to group of middle aged men. "You wanna go and watch?"

The teen glanced up and shifted a bit awkwardly. "Don't you have anything else you'd rather see instead?" he asked.

"Not really, since we already used the ticked," Hikaru shrugged and headed towards the table with the Goban. He wasn't interested about it one bit, but Sai was. The teen had indulged him enough to come to the festival with him so it was only fair for Hikaru to indulge his weird hobbies. "Come on."

"Yes yes," the elder boy sighed and followed him quickly.

"This is a medium level problem," the spectacled Haze student was explaining to the man sitting across him when Hikaru and Sai reached the table. There were few stones arranged to the corner of the board, black stones mostly surrounding the white. "Please solve it in three hands."

"If black is there, then white…" the man placed a stone to the board. "Here."

"But what I the next stone goes here?" the student asked, pushing his glasses higher.

"Oh, I see. Heh heh, this is pretty difficult," the man murmured awkwardly with a smile and stood up to leave. "I better let someone else have a crack at it, I'm not good enough."

"What's that?" Hikaru asked, glancing at Sai over his shoulder.

"Tsumego. Life and death problems," the senior high schooler answered, gazing at the board with a weird look on his face.

"Could you solve it?" the younger boy asked curiously, turning to look at the board again. To him it looked just black and white stones sitting in random order.

"Would you like to try?" the haze student asked, motioning welcomingly towards the chair across him. He smiled at Sai's hesitation. "Go ahead. I have prizes for those who solve the problems."

"Well…" the elder teen still wavered but Hikaru didn't have such problems. Quickly he circled around the elder boy and pushed him towards the chair. "Hikaru!" Sai yelped with indignation but was forced to sit down.

"I wanna see if you're any good. Go on, solve it," Hikaru grinned, folding his hands.

Sai huffed at him before turning his pout towards the Goban sitting on the table. Then, with a sigh, he took a white stone. The way he held it between his middle and forefinger was actually kind of cool in Hikaru's opinion, as was the way he snapped the stone to the board with a sharp wooden click. He didn't know what difference the move made though, to him it looked like one more stone in already haphazard pattern.

The Haze student countered the move, and then Sai laid a stone again. This happened few times and rather quickly too, though Hikaru couldn't really tell what happened. The Haze student seemed pleasantly surprised though. "Well done," he said, taking out a can of soda. "Here you go, your prize."

"I don't need that," Sai chuckled awkwardly. "You can keep it and give it to someone else."

"You sure?" the spectacled boy asked. "How about another problem?" he then asked, quickly clearing the board and looking through his book of Tsumego. "Hmm… how about…" he started quickly laying down the stones. "This is a bit harder one. Please solve it with four hands."

Hikaru blinked with surprise as Sai solved what ever problem the stones presented instantly. It seemed to offer him no challenge at all, though for all Hikaru knew the thing could've been really easy. "Give him a harder problem," the grade schooler said before grinning. "Or on second thought, make it the hardest one."

"Hikaru!" Sai cried out, glancing over his shoulder.

"You don't think you can do it?" Hikaru asked with a look of mock disappointment. "And here I thought you were good. I guess I was wrong."

"I never said that I was expert or anything," the elder boy muttered, throwing a frown at him before turning to the haze student. "Give me the hardest problem," he asked somewhat sullenly. "I'm going to give you a test tomorrow for this," Sai muttered at the boy under his breath, only making Hikaru's smirk widen.

"The hardest? Are you sure?" the spectacled boy quickly leafed through the book. "Hm. You'd have to be at Toya Akira's level to solve this one."

"Who's that?" Hikaru asked from Sai with confusion. "Someone famous?"

"I don't know," the teen shrugged with a pout still in his face.

The haze schooler blushed a bit with embarrassment. "He's the son of the holder of the Meijin title. He's pretty incredible Go player even though he's so young… never mind," he muttered, quickly arranging the problem to the board for Sai. "This problem is really difficult, the hardest one in the book. Go ahead," he said to Sai. "First hand is the key."

Sai merely glanced at the board before placing the first stone down. The haze student's eyes widened as he quickly scrambled to place a white stone to the board. Sai countered it with his move and again. Within few seconds, they were finished. While Hikaru tried to figure out how the moves Sai had made any difference at all, the people watching them made impressed sounds and even clapped at Sai.

"That was… fast," the Haze student said with shock, looking up. "You're really good! Who are you? I bet you could be a pro - or insei at least."

Sai shifted awkwardly in his seat before standing up. "I don't really play Go that seriously anymore," he murmured, turning to look at Hikaru. "Shall we go, Hikaru? There is still lot to see around here, isn't there?"

"Wait, your prize," the spectacled boy said, taking a book from the table and holding it out for Sai. "Here. You've earned it." When Sai did nothing, the boy stood up, holding the book out with both hands. "Please take it. I wouldn't feel right keeping it after you solved that problem."

"Ah… alright then," Sai murmured and took the book. Curiously Hikaru leaned to see what it was. "Toya Meijin's Go tutorial?" Sai read thoughtfully and flipped the book open. "This was written by the current holder of the Meijin title?"

"Toya… So the guy who wrote this is the father of that Akira guy you mentioned?" Hikaru asked, pointing at the book while looking at the Haze student. When the boy nodded, Hikaru hummed with something akin to awe. "There are some pretty weird families out there, huh? Father and son both playing Go," he murmured, turning his attention to the book again. It was filled with text with some pictures of squares dotted with black and white balls and made no sense to him at all. "What are those?"

"They're kifu Hikaru, records of Go games," Sai answered, closing the book. He threw a somewhat awkward smile to the haze student and then looked at Hikaru. "Shall we go then?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Sure," Hikaru shrugged. They left just in time - a boy dressed into hakama and haori had just walked towards them with cigarette in his lips. From behind them, Hikaru could hear how he and the boy from the Go club started arguing. He didn't care too much about that, though, as he looked up to Sai. "I thought you liked Go."

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Sai asked a bit confusedly, tucking the book into the rather big pocket of his jacket. "I do like Go."

"It didn't really look like you do. When that kid guy praised you, you got all tense and stuff," the younger boy pointed out. "What's up with that? I thought you once thought of playing Go professionally."

"I did, but it was long ago," Sai answered with a light shrug of his shoulders, though there was a little bit of awkwardness about it. "Hey, maybe we should see if this school has any gymnastic teams. I think we forgot about that when we were taking a look at the kendo and judo clubs…"

Hikaru raised his eyebrows at the awkward change of subject. The look in the older boy's eyes made him decide against questioning it so he merely nodded. "Yeah, sure," he said, but tucked Sai's reaction to his memory so that he could figure the reason for it later on.

They checked out what sort of gymnastic activities the school had. It had one big club with three separate teams in it - general teams for boys and girls which had pretty much everything from still rings to trampoline to them and then there was the girl's rhythmic gymnastics which was different. All three team had entered competitions though it seemed that haze had only won a few times and that had been years ago.

"If I join that, and kendo, and judo my time will be pretty much booked. Though gymnastic seems to be during the same time as judo," Hikaru mused after they headed away from the sloth of the gymnastic teams. "So I could only go to that and to kendo if I wanted to."

"You probably could learn hand to hand somewhere else than in school clubs. After school, during weekends…" Sai suggested. "There are no doubt several martial arts classes given all around Tokyo."

"Hm. Yeah. This is getting pretty complicated. And if I start I really won't have free time at all - and I'd have to start getting up really early every morning to be on time for gymnastics," Hikaru sighed. The notion of waking so early every school really didn't sound appealing - and he'd probably have to continue with school activities after classes too. Sports were taken pretty seriously in Haze judging by what he had seen.

"You have still time to decide on another occupation," the elder boy suggested happily. "Something less taxing maybe. Less dangerous too."

"Shut up, I'm not going to change my mind," Hikaru grumbled throwing a glare at him. "How about you become pianist instead of cellist?"

"Totally different thing - I don't have the time to change my mind anymore. And I don't want to," Sai smiled and shook his head. "I can do some research about possible classes you could take if you want me to."

"Yeah, sure," the younger boy nodded with a sigh and looked around. "I think we've pretty much seen everything now. Except for fortune teller and girly stuff like that, although…" he gave a sneaky look to the taller boy. "Do _you_ want to check them out?" he asked, reaching out and tugging on the slightly shorter strands of Sai's hair that framed his face. "Hm, girly boy?"

"Stop it," Sai whined, quickly freeing his trapped hair. "And no, I don't care about seeing fortune teller or other of your so called girly stalls," he huffed, smoothing his fingers through the hair to straighten any possible tangles of it out. "You meanie."

Hikaru smirked. "You are _so_ girly," he said, shaking his head. "Let's leave then, nothing much else to do around here now that we've already seen everything. Hey, we could go out for ramen, couldn't we?"

"I think we should go eat something else," the elder boy answered, quickly following him as Hikaru headed towards the gates of the Haze's school yard. "Not only is ramen not really good for you but it'll lose it's taste if you eat it too much."

"Never gonna happen, that. Ramen will always be good," Hikaru said determinately. "But I guess we could go get some burgers instead."

"Not exactly healthy either," Sai sighed, before glancing at him with a slight frown. "I'm not going to pay for you," he then said.

"What? Why not? I didn't bring any money with me!" the younger boy whined.

"I only treat you when you do well in our study sessions," the other said determinately. "And we haven't had one today."

"Well, I decided on occupation and we even checked the clubs," Hikaru pointed out. "That's kinda like studying, right?"

"No, not really," Sai chuckled, reaching out and flicking Hikaru's bleached bangs with his forefinger. "And even if it had been like studying, I wouldn't say that you had done good job today. You didn't do your research on the matter of your chosen profession, and I had to make you realise that checking out the clubs might be vital - and even when we did it was hardly organised -"

"Yeah, okay, fine," the grade schooler sighed, slumping a little with disappointment. "Would you treat me if I promised to treat you back sometime?"

"I can do that," the teen chuckled. "But you really must return the favour sometime or I'll get my revenge by intensifying the study sessions."

"Yes, yes, I know. I'll definitely treat you back sometime later," Hikaru pouted. He hadn't been planning to trick the older boy but he knew that Sai really could make his life harder if he wanted to. And the study sessions were pretty hard as it was - the older boy just wouldn't give him any mercy when it came to it. "Let's go already."

With a chuckle teen followed him, his happy reaction making Hikaru swear that he would once grill Sai about the whole Go business. _Later. Food first._

x

:P mehehe, I should've bet something on Hikaru's choise of occupation, I would've won. I know it's kinda weird choise, stuntman, but just bear with me. I have a plan and it might even have a point. Somewhere. Also, if it has not dawned by yet, this shall (in some distant future) be Hikaru x Sai slash. I figured I should make that clear so that confusions can be avoided.


	4. To Fight

**IV chapter**

**To Fight**

Unlike Sai had suspected, Hikaru didn't drop the idea of becoming a stuntman in few days. It made him glad that he had actually done some research on the subject and even gone as far as finding some martial arts and gymnastic classes for Hikaru to select from but at the same time… he had been rather hoping that the boy would forget about the whole thing eventually. It wasn't the safest occupation out there, after all.

But against his hopes Hikaru had decided to enrol into few classes and had decided to start gymnastics and kendo both when he would start at Haze Junior High. "I'll have to get used to waking up insanely early, but if they can do it then so can I," Hikaru had said determinedly. "I'll just go to bed earlier or something."

_Seems like the more I'm against the idea, the more he likes it and the more determined he gets,_ the tutor mused while waiting for Hikaru to finish writing his notes. _He has the whole determination thing backwards, I swear. He's the sort of guy who will have to eat a chilli pepper before he will believe others about it being spicy… and then he will eat another just to prove them that he can._

He stifled a chuckle, leafing through Hikaru's social studies book. _Hikaru is not very good at listening to others,_ he mused. _Not unless he either has no choice and he's pushed into it. But if you start pushing against his opinions, he will push back four times as hard. Typical soon-to-be-teenager, he has to always be right… _Sai was more than relieved that he had never suffered through that period of his youth. Hopefully he wouldn't, either. It seemed quite bothersome.

_Well there is plenty of time before he would even get around the point of actually becoming a stuntman,_ the teen concluded, glancing at the boy who had just straightened his back. _Hopefully he'll find another goal for himself before then._ "Done?" he asked.

Hikaru sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Let's see it then," Sai reached for the paper and glanced through it. Smile tugged on his lips as he leaned back a bit. Hikaru's note-taking abilities had definitely improved. _Problem with schools is often that teachers tell what to write and students copy it without giving any thought to it, like dolls. If I can train Hikaru to making notes of his own instead of following the pre-given patterns, his marks would definitely rise - and not just with social studies._

"This is good enough. Let's go through it," Sai then said. "Tell me a bit about Emperor Komei."

Hikaru thought about it and then started to speak. "He was born in the second year of Tempo, and Ninko was the emperor before him…"

Sai listened to what Hikaru said, nodding during the parts where he got it right and frowning a little when the facts were off. Overall Hikaru remembered things very well though - if the question would be asked in a test, Sai was certain he would be able to give a satisfying answer. "Emperor Meiji then," Sai spoke once Hikaru was done answering. "What was the remarkable event that took place during his rule?"

"That's easy, it's the Meiji Restoration," Hikaru answered, leaning his chin to his knuckles.

"Good. Though one could argue that it wasn't due to the Emperor's efforts at all," Sai raised his eyebrows. "The Emperor after all didn't wield any truly powerful influence over Japan. Be sure to remember it if it's asked in a test - the Meiji Restoration happened mostly due to arrival of the Black Ships and opening of Japan."

"We went over that when we were going over Perry," the younger boy pointed it out.

"It's still good to remember. The Meji Restoration would've probably happened with a different emperor - it was one of those inevitable things that no one can stop," Sai sighed, pursing his lips thoughtfully while scanning over the notes. "Tell me about Tokugawa Toshinobu."

"He was the last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate," Hikaru answered. "He became the shogun in the second year of the Keio period and was the only shogun to spend his entire tenure outside Edo."

"Good. What about the circumstances leading to his position as the Shogun?" Sai asked and then listened how Hikaru told him about the fourteenth shogun, Tokugawa Iemochi and daimyo Ii Naosuke who supported him - and how after the daimyo's death, Toshinobu became the shogun's guardian, succeeding Iemochi after his untimely death. In the end Hikaru remembered all the right facts correctly enough.

"Good, very good," Sai nodded, lowering the notes to the table and smiling at the younger boy. "I think we're about done to day. Want to get some ramen?"

Hikaru's eyes lit up. "I was actually hoping we could do something else if I did well today," he said quickly. "Nothing wrong with ramen, but we always go eat it so it doesn't feel like prize anymore, so I thought…"

Sai chuckled. "What is it then?" he asked. "Hamburgers again?"

"No, I wanna see where you live," the younger boy said excitedly. "Can I?"

"Where I live? You want to see my home?" the teen asked with surprise, thinking back to his small apartment. He couldn't really see any reason as to why Hikaru would want to visit the place - it wasn't that interesting and he certainly hadn't tried to make it seem fascinating in anyway. "Why?"

"Well, you go to a fancy school and wear fancy clothing and stuff like that," Hikaru said, motioning somewhat wildly toward his bed where Sai's long white jacket lay along with his shoulder bag. "So I figured that you're a rich kid - and I've never had the chance to see a rich kid's house."

Sai stated at him with shock for a moment before chuckling. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't exactly live the sort of lifestyle you seem to think I live. For one, I live in an apartment building and my apartment is relatively small," he shrugged his shoulders, throwing a look towards his jacket. His clothing were maybe fancier than some people had but that was because his aunt was a fashion fanatic.

"Your apartment? You live alone?" Hikaru asked with his eyes widening. "I thought that you'd be living with your mom… or…"

"My mother died few days after my birth," Sai answered with a soft smile to alleviate the look of worry in the younger boy's face. "My uncle is my guardian. I lived with him and his wife up until I started in senior high - that was when they got me my apartment near the school. They still check up on me regularly though."

"Woah. That's… I'm sorry about your mom and all, but that's kinda cool. Living alone, that is," Hikaru said. "Now I really wanna see your place. Can I?"

The teen chuckled again. "Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with it. But do not get your hope up; my house really isn't as special as you think."

x

When, after a train ride and considerable amount of walking, Sai opened the door of his apartment to Hikaru, he felt somewhat self conscious. Aside from his uncle and aunt, he had never let anyone else into the apartment. In a way Hikaru was the first one to actually see the place. _He'll be disappointed,_ the teen mused as they stepped inside. _He's waiting too much._

Hikaru, with his usual lack mannerism, quickly toed his sneakers off before boldly stepping forward and looking around curiously. At Sai's amused encouragement the boy walked through the short hall to what served as the kitchen and dining room. Of course kitchen for Sai was nothing but a small corner of the room, but he didn't really need much.

"Kinda empty," Hikaru pointed out since there was nothing else in the room but dining table and four chairs. Then, with a shrug he walked forward and to what was Sai's living room, study room and during the night bedroom as well. Sai followed with mild amusement and worry. It was strange to have someone see his room I it was like showing parts of himself that he usually kept concealed.

"You have lot of books here, though I dunno how that surprises me as much as it does. You geek," Hikaru mumbled while looking around. Then he noticed Sai's cello which lay in its case next to Sai's desk. "That's your instrument, huh? It's bigger than I thought." Then the boy's eyes skipped to what was sitting next to the bookshelves. "You have a Goban here too. I thought you didn't play?"

"I don't," Sai answered with a chuckle as Hikaru wandered around the room like curious cat. "But I do still study Go, and recite old games fairly often." Even though he had more or less given up the idea of ever playing he had never been able to give up Go itself - the fascination towards the game had never truly faded. Whilst distancing himself from the idea of playing Go professionally, he had gone out his way to search for old kifu to study - the older the better.

"You don't play Go but you study it?" Hikaru asked confusedly, while crouching beside the Goban and wiping his finger over the surface as if to check if there was any dust. Then he looked at Sai. "How does that work?"

"It has worked well enough," Sai answered.

The boy huffed with amused disbelief. "You don't sound too happy about it," he said, sitting to the floor beside the Goban with his feet crossed. "I don't get it though. Why to study it when you can play it? If you like the game, then…"

The teen sighed. "You're not going to give it up, huh?" he asked.

"Well, with you acting all suspicious about it… you're just making me curious," Hikaru said, raising his eyebrows. "So you might as well spill the beans. I wanna know how an eight year old kid could think of becoming a pro player - and why you never did if you're as good as that guy from Haze thought you were."

Sai looked at him for a moment and hesitated, but the serious look on the other's face made him give him. Knowing Hikaru he probably wouldn't let it be, he mused while sitting down to the floor. "Soon after my father died, I tried to take the pro exam," he said and then explained because Hikaru gave him a confused look. "The Go players need to take an exam to become professionals. It's a round robin tournament between the participants and only three pass each year."

"You tried to take it when you were eight? Is that common?" Hikaru asked with confusion.

"No, not really. The youngest ever to pass the exam in Japan was eleven years old. If I had passed I would've been youngest person ever to become Go professional. And I really wanted to pass the exam, being a pro was a dream for me, playing against tough opponents, it was… all I wanted back then. But…" Sai smiled sadly. "But I never really took part in the actual exam. I was… disqualified during the preliminaries."

The younger boy's eyebrows lifted with surprise. "Disqualified? Why? Because you were too young or…?"

"No, I was accused of cheating," the teen hook his head with his smile falling. "My first game was against opponent at least three times my age. He… I guess he didn't take the idea of losing against an eight year old too well. In the middle of playing he suddenly called out that I was cheating - that I had taken out a black stone from my sleeve and added it to my captured stones…"

Sai chuckled sadly. "Of course I tried to deny it, but in midst of yelling at me he had placed one of his stones to my captured ones. So no one believed me… they thought that I had intended to pass the exam by cheating. I was only eight and I had just lost my father, so I didn't take the accusations too well…" he sighed at the memory of how he had bursted to confused, frightened tears under the glares of the examinees and examiners. "I was disqualified immediately and banned from ever stepping to the Go Association again."

Hikaru stared at him with wide eyes. "Wow," he then muttered. "That's really… harsh. What happened to the actual cheater? He didn't pass, right?"

"I don't know. After the preliminaries I stopped paying attention to the professional Go world," Sai shook his head. "Instead I turned to music. I almost stopped paying any attention to Go entirely, but eventually I started collecting old game records and studying them," he motioned towards the bookshelf which was mostly filled with kifu which were at least fifty years old. "That has been enough."

The boy before him frowned. "But… even though you were banned from the Go association, that's not reason for you to top playing, right? I mean… they can't stop anyone from playing. You just can't play professionally."

Sai chuckled. "I did try about year or so after the incident. I went to a Go salon to play. But then the man I played against told me that I'm good enough to be a pro and… that was too painful to hear, I guess," he shook his head and turned his attention to his cello. "So I rather play music than Go." With music there rarely were opponents to accuse him of cheating anyway.

Hikaru hummed thoughtfully. "How'd you go from a board game to music?" he then asked. "That doesn't make sense. It would make more sense if you'd start playing another game, really."

Sai chuckled. "It wasn't immediate decision. I had already had interest towards music before. My father made sting instruments for living, you see," he explained and pointed towards the cello. "This one was the last one he made. I started to learn how to play it in his honour but eventually I became my next love."

"Next love?" Hikaru gave him that 'you girly boy' look. Then he threw a glance towards the Goban. "Can you teach me how to play?"

Sai's eyes widened slightly. _Teach Hikaru now to play Go?_ He thought with mild panic. "You want to learn how to play Go?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows in confusion and slight worry. "I thought that it was nothing but an old man's game to you," he pointed out.

"Well if you like it there must be something interesting about it," Hikaru shrugged. "If you teach me how to play Go then you can play against me. And I won't tell you that you'd be good enough to become pro because know better and all that," the boy stretched his hand. "And you still want to play, right?" he asked, giving Sai a sly look.

"Well… but why…?" Sai frowned. It didn't make sense for Hikaru to ask something like this. Go was uninteresting to him, and it took time and effort. Hikaru could concentrate for long periods of time if he really wanted to but Sai wasn't sure if he had the patience to play Go.

"What does it matter why I want to learn? Just teach me!" Hikaru said, pulling the Goban from beside the bookshelf to stand between them. "Come on."

Sai frowned, placing his hands to his lap. The idea of one more person playing the game he loved was of course wonderful but… he wasn't sure if he was up to being the teacher. He hadn't held the Go stones in someone's presence for so long… and it was Hikaru of all people. Despite everything he couldn't believe that Hikaru would ever share his affection for the game. Teaching like this… it felt wrong.

"Come on, Sai," the younger boy demanded with a frown while opening the wooden stone bowls.

"No, I will not teach you Go," Sai answered, twisting the fabric of his trousers in his fingers.

"Why not?" Hikaru frowned. "You think I will suck, don't you?"

"No, I think you won't be serious," the teen answered and stood up swiftly. "I have not played in over seven years and I will not start just to amuse your fleeting interest that will no doubt be gone next week."

"I can be serious about it," Hikaru answered with the sort of tone that said that Sai had accidentally issued a challenge which had suddenly been accepted. "I can be as serious about it as you can be."

_Somehow I doubt that,_ Sai sighed but met the boy's serious eyes. _But if Hikaru's concentration latches onto Go, if he really will become honestly serious about it, if he will truly apply himself to it… then I will…_ "If you're serious then learn, take classes, study from books… and then we'll play," he said out loud. "I'll give you a month to learn the basics before we play."

"Just the basics?"

Sai smiled slightly at the demanding look on the boy's green eyes. "Basics are all you can learn. Rest you need to realise and develop yourself," he said. "Go is a life long study, Hikaru. And even those who spend their entire lives studying never learn all of it."

"Fine. In a month I will learn the basics and then we'll play." Hikaru's eyes narrowed, raising his hand and pointing Sai challengingly. "I'll kick your ass."

The boy's smirk faltered a bit as Sai smiled somewhat predatorily at him. "I'll be looking forward to it, then."

Later, after Hikaru had headed home, Sai sat in silence before the Goban which had only seen recited games for the last seven or so years. It had been so long since there had been actual opponent sitting across him. He could barely even remember what it felt like to actually play… but he still missed it. Every day he missed it.

_The only times I truly played was against was my father and the people in the Go salon he went to,_ he thought to himself while running his hand over the familiar yet somehow foreign surface of the wood. _How long was that? Several years, I think we went to that salon long before I knew how to walk. We played there and home, and when I learned how to read well enough I started to learn from his collection…_

Turning his eyes to the bookshelves, he smiled. Some of the books in it were from his father's collection, though most of them were his own collection. He still had boxes full of books and magazines his father had collected, but those were all too new to interest Sai anymore.

Reaching out for his favourite book, he smiled softly. It was the biggest and most frayed book he had, 'The Complete Collection of the Go Saint Shusaku'. He had been studying the kifu in the book as long as he could remember. _I learned most from this book,_ Sai thought, eying the nondescript front cover and running his fingers over it. It had been taped a few times and looked rather pathetic. To Sai it was anything but, though. _And I can recite over half of the games from memory. This, truly, was more of a teacher for me than father. As good as he was, he wasn't brilliant. Not like Shusaku-sama was…_

He sighed. _I think was about five before the people in the salon stopped being challenging. It might've been because this book and the others I read,_ he mused, flipping through the much suffered pages. His younger hands hadn't been as kind to them as they were now. _They called me prodigy in that salon, as did father. Told me to take the exam as soon as possible… Yet I waited and waited and only tried after father died… to honour his wishes. And I failed so spectacularly._

The idea of playing again was a bit painful, but in midst of the hurt he couldn't help but feel strangely relieved. It felt like he had been standing in still waters for a long long time, waiting for something. Step forward and he would drown… give up Go entirely. But now Hikaru had thrown him something to hang onto.

_Now I'll just have to see if it's a rope that will stay sturdy for a long time or a straw that will break as soon as I grasp it,_ he mused, snapping the book shut. After pushing it gently back to the shelf, he turned to the Goban and gently placed it back to its usual spot beside the bookshelf, the stone bowls comfortable sitting on top of it.

After looking at the board for a moment, he stood up and turned his back to it. _It would be nice to play again._ _But if Hikaru's only throwing me a straw, then maybe it's the time to give up on my silly childhood dreams…_

_x_

Tadaah, Sai's secrets revealed. Well some of them. I'm not sure if you can actually ban someone from the Go association, though. If you know better.

Oh and the kid with glasses in the previous chapter was Tsutsui Kimihiro. Everyone, except for Sai (in Hikaru), are in the same roles they were in the manga. Ogata is a ninth dan, Toya Koyo is a title holder, Akira is planning to be pro, Waya, Fukui, Isumi, etc are insei, and so forth.


	5. To Strengthen

**V chapter**

**To Strengthen **

Stretching his arms to try and get rid of the tenseness that had lodged itself somewhere inside his shoulder during the last hour, Hikaru sighed. It would take a while to get used to martial arts. He had only been to few classes but they were already starting to feel like too much. Despite all the stretching and muscle secrecies he had to do before and after classes, he was still left with aches. And they hadn't even done much during the class!

_And thank gods that place had showers; I was all sweaty when we were done. But I still won't give up, no way in hell. I'll show Sai that I'm not a quitter,_ he thought with determination, rolling his shoulder on the rhythm of his walking. _I'll go to each and every one of those classes and I'll excel in them. All of them. And the clubs at Haze too, once I'll start there. I'll show him that I won't turn back on my own word. Yep, yep._

That reminded him of the last, probably slightly extravagant promise he had made to his tutor. _Learning Go. What was I thinking?_ He sighed and looked around in the street. There was nothing there to offer him any insight to his mind though. _Sai made it seem something awesome though. Kinda. With what he did at the festival and then the story he told me… kinda made me feel sad for him…_

Hikaru frowned at the memory. He still had a feeling that Sai wanted to play Go, really, really wanted to. There had been a weird look in the teen's eyes back then… like he wanted to but in the same time didn't dare to. _I guess after being cheated on like that, he got all wary about the whole thing. He's afraid that he'll be disappointed or tricked again._

When he had asked Sai to teach him, it had been just a moment of… of something. Sympathy maybe, some girly feeling anyway. But then Sai had denied him and Hikaru had felt strangely hurt. Especially when Sai had said that said that he didn't believe Hikaru could be serious about Go. It did make sense for Sai not to think that Hikaru wasn't serious about the whole thing. Hell, Hikaru hadn't been. But still he had felt insulted.

And then he had, again, talked himself into situation he couldn't escape from. Because, even though he could've skipped the whole idea, just forgotten everything about it… no, he couldn't have. Not with Sai. Because Sai would get _the_ sort of look to his face, disappointed and hurt and all that… and Hikaru would feel like the worst person on Earth. Sai had never given that sort of look to him, but Hikaru just knew he could and it would be horrible.

He shuddered and looked around again. The thought of learning Go had been haunting him ever since that visit to Sai's apartment, but he hadn't yet done anything about it. But he knew he had to, he needed to. He just needed to get started. _I wonder where you can take classes for that sort of thing. Grandpa probably knows, the Go freak. And books I can get from bookstores - hey, what's that…?_

He blinked at one of the signs at the street side. It said Go in it. Stopping in mid step he stared at it for a moment before directing his steps towards it to see what it really was. _Go salon, huh? Didn't Sai say that visited a place like that?_ he thought, tilting his head to the side. Then, giving himself no time for hesitation, he headed inside. He had to start somewhere after all.

When he stepped into the salon, he was greeted by a young woman leaning onto the counter which was right next to the door. "Welcome," the woman said with a smile while Hikaru freaked a little at the sight of the whole place being full of geezers. "Your first time here?" the woman asked amusedly.

"Ah, yeah," Hikaru said embarrassedly. "It's my first time anywhere. Can I learn Go here?"

"I guess this is as good place to start as any," the woman said with slight surprise. "Though people come to here mainly to play rather than learn… you've never played before?"

"No," Hikaru shook his head.

"Well… I'm sure someone here can help you learn the basics if nothing else," the young woman mused before motioning towards a paper that lay on the table. "Write your name down here and we'll ask around if someone here would be willing to help you along. The children's fee is five hundred yen."

_I have to pay?_ Hikaru thought with dismay but quickly searching pocket for the money. _Man, with the martial arts lessons and now this? Sai is expensive tutor to have, I swear…_ he grumbled mentally and handed the money to the woman. _Why the heck am I doing all this stuff for him anyway since he's just a tutor? Well, he does get me free ramen…_

"Thank you," the woman nodded, quickly hiding the money to the cash register. "Do you want to leave your bag here? I can keep it behind the counter here."

Hikaru nodded and quickly wrote down his name before shrugging his pack back off and handing it to woman. After putting it somewhere behind the counter, she motioned him to follow. As Hikaru did, he noticed that the place wasn't full of geezers - there was one boy there. "Hey, there's a kid here," he spoke out with surprise. "Can I play with him?"

The said kid looked up with surprise. "Uh, me?" he asked. "You're looking for opponent?"

"Akira-kun. This kid has never played before," the woman spoke out, motioning at Hikaru who grinned sheepishly at the boy with neatly cut dark hair. "Would you be willing to get him started? Or are you going to give lessons to the other customers?"

"No, I'm free at the moment," the boy smiled to Hikaru who sighed with relief. With a chuckle the boy motioned towards where he had been sitting before. "Let's go to the back, it's more quiet there" he said. "My name is Toya Akira."

"Hey, I've heard about you!" Hikaru's expression lightened. "I get to be taught by someone famous, this is so cool. I'm Shindo Hikaru, I'm in the sixth grade."

"Oh, so am I," Toya smiled before leading him to the back. "So, you've never played before? What got you interested about Go, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I have a, ah… I guess I could call him a friend. Anyway, I want to play him," Hikaru said before making a face. "But he won't teach me. Told me to learn the basics first. The jerk. I was actually thinking about finding some classes I could take and maybe buying some books but then I saw the sign of this place and decided to check it out."

"Heh, you're in luck then. My father and I often give lessons to the customers here - father owns this salon so we are here often," Toya said, motioning Hikaru to sit down to a empty table that had Gobans sitting on it. After sitting down himself, he took the lids of the bowls. "How much do you know about Go?"

"Not a thing," Hikaru answered with a grin. "I can't even hold the stones with that cool way people hold them," he made a demonstrating motion with his fingers.

Toya chuckled at him, reminding Hikaru strangely of Sai. "How about I explain the rules for you and we'll start from there, alright?" he asked and then quickly arranged some stones to the board. Then he begun to explain about how Go worked.

Hikaru listened to Toya the same way he listened to Sai, trying to memorise everything he said - though with whole lot more concentration since he had no chance to make notes with this. The idea behind Go was surprisingly simple once it was explained to him, but Hikaru had a feeling that there was a lot more to it. Sai was really smart and nothing that simple would interest him for so long - or cause him so much pain.

"Okay I think I get the whole thing about capturing territory," Hikaru said. "And how the points are counted."

"Good. You understand the concept of atari now, right? Alright, how about I'll arrange you some simple problems so that you can solve them?" Toya asked and arranged the stones to certain shape. "With two moves you can capture the white stones in the middle."

Hikaru nodded, and quickly took a black stone. After he had clumsily placed it down, Toya placed a white stone in counter, after which Hikaru placed his stone and captured the ones in the middle. Toya nodded in satisfaction and then made a other similar situation. "Two move with this one too," he said and motioned Hikaru to go ahead.

It ended up being more fun than Hikaru had thought. The basics were easy enough to understand and capturing stones wasn't that hard. Though it did make him wonder about that difficult problem Sai had solved at the school festival - he wasn't sure exactly how that had been solved. Sai hadn't captured any stones in it. _Well, I guess it's something you can only understand when you're strong enough…_

"I think this should be enough for your first lesson," Toya said after spending a hour or so teaching Hikaru. "If you want to you can come again. I'm here pretty often so I can continue teaching you."

"Really? You wouldn't mind?" Hikaru asked with surprise.

"Not at all," the other boy smiled. "You're picking this up pretty quickly and you're easy enough to teach."

"Thanks," Hikaru grinned back, though there was awkward quality to it. _This guy really reminds me of Sai. And that haircut too... Are all kids interested in Go girly weirdoes?_ he wondered before he and Toya worked out a good time for Hikaru to come. With the study sessions with Sai and the martial arts lessons Hikaru was taking, they could only meet three times a week but hopefully that would be enough. And Hikaru didn't even have to pay for the lessons, just paying the entrance fee to the salon was enough.

_You just wait, Sai. I have Toya Akira teaching me Go. I'm so gonna kick your ass in a month,_ Hikaru thought while heading home sometime later. _And I'm gonna buy some books about Go tomorrow. Yeah. And I won't give up on martial arts either, oh no. I'll show you it's better not to underestimate me. Yeah!_

x

Hikaru graduated from grade school without much fuss. His grades were better than his parents had suspected - and Sai's influence there did not go unnoticed - but other than that it was a pretty quiet affair. Starting at junior high wasn't too spectacular either. Honestly the only difference was that Hikaru now had to wear uniform - and wake up at ungodly hour.

"I still can't believe you joined gymnastic and kendo clubs," Hikaru's best friend, Akari spoke during recess one day while Hikaru tried to stretch a tense muscle in the back of his calve into obedience. It had been aching since his morning practices. "I would've believed if you had joined the soccer club - you like soccer - but kendo? And why gymnastics?"

"They'll help me in the future," Hikaru said, lowering his weight slightly. He was currently standing on the balls of his feet on the edge of a stair, lifting his weight slowly up and down. It hurt surprisingly much but the tenseness was easing up.

"With that stuntman thing?" the girl asked with slight look of disbelief. "I don't get it. Why do you suddenly want to become a stuntman? You never had any interest for that or any sort of occupation before…" she glanced towards the billboard where the posters for the school clubs had been hung. Amongst them were the kendo and gymnastic clubs' posters. "Isn't gymnastics really hard?"

"Really, really hard, but it'll help me," Hikaru answered. The gymnastic practices during the first days had been hell. Honestly it seemed like he had been doing nothing but stretching during the practices. But then again, unlike some of the others in the club, he hadn't done gymnastics before and lacked their agility and limberness. It would take a long while before he would catch up. Kendo wasn't exactly dancing on rose petals either. "And I want to become a stuntman because I do. Nothing more to it."

Akari sighed, still looking at the bill board. "Maybe I should join a club too," she mused, her eyebrows raising up. "Heh, we have a Go club. Maybe I'll join that," she joked.

Hikaru glanced over his shoulder to the board. The poster for the Go club was pretty big. "Hm. I saw it at the festival. It didn't seem too busy," he said before going back to his stretching.

"Yeah it would probably be a bit boring too," Akari mused and stood up to check the board. "Maybe I should join a club too. Maybe the tennis club… I wonder if this school has a badminton club, I've always wanted to try that."

"Why join now? You've ever had interest I club activities before," Hikaru said as he finished his stretching and stepped down from the stair. Swinging his leg back and forth few times, he nodded with satisfaction before moving to join Akari.

"Neither did you and suddenly you're in two clubs - and taking lessons after school. And you have a tutor," Akari glanced at him. "Actually, is that tutor still giving you lessons since you're not in grade school anymore?"

"Yeah, he is. Mom and dad think that he's good influence on me so he will still tutor me," Hikaru nodded, stretching his hands. "Though from here on he'll help me with what ever I have problems with and not just social studies."

"He can do that? I though that he was only good at history and such," Akari said with surprise

"Sai? Nah. He's… he's good with anything he does," Hikaru said with a half hearted smirk. "He goes to a school that only accepts students with high IQ you know. He's a genius."

"Really? A real genius?" the girl's eyes widened. "Wow. And guy like that is giving you lessons? How did your parent's manage to hire him?"

"Lucky coincidence, I guess," Hikaru shrugged. "You could join the gymnastic club, you know. There are lot of girls there."

Having Sai tutor him in all the subjects he had wasn't exactly sunshine and daisies, though. If the senior high schooler had been merciless before, he was plain cruel now. With more subjects to teach in same time as before, he had cut the second read through time off and now Hikaru had to memorise and make notes on the first go - and quickly too because they usually went through several subjects in one go.

_Keeping up with him is getting harder and harder,_ Hikaru sighed. _Sometimes I can't help but wonder if that guy has forgotten that I'm not a genius like he is._ Of course he wouldn't say that to Sai. Oh no. Each study session these day was a test and if Hikaru was bad at something, it was backing down from challenge. _Though, taking martial arts lessons, being part in two clubs, getting lessons from Toya Akira and Sai's study sessions… that's going to become tiresome pretty quickly, no doubt_

Sai, being the creepy intuitive girly genius he was, of course noticed it first. "You seem rather tired," the senior high schooler pointed out while watching how Hikaru hastily wrote notes. "All the extra work is taking a toll on you, hm?"

"'m not givin' up," Hikaru mumbled with a pout, underlining one date three times before continuing to write.

The teen sighed, folding his hands and giving him the sort of look that Hikaru usually got from his mother when he did something she found exasperating. "You are very determined and you don't give up, I can understand that, and I ever respect that," he said. "But you shouldn't overwork yourself just to prove me wrong."

Hikaru gave him a glare and said, "I'm not doing it just to prove you wrong," before he got the chance to actually think it over.

"Oh really?" Sai asked, raising one thin eyebrow at him.

"I'm not," Hikaru answered with a frown and turned his eyes back to the notes. He wasn't entirely sure if that was true, though. If Sai hadn't been around, he probably wouldn't have gotten to the whole extra studying thing - and he definitely wouldn't have started to learn Go. _But it's not just that…_ "I made a promise, so I'm gonna keep it," he said a bit sullenly and added a line to few of the t:s in the notes

"Oh, you're the sort of person who doesn't want to break a promise. That's pretty honourable," Sai murmured with little bit of acknowledgement in his voice. Then he glanced at Hikaru's notes. "Done?"

_Bah. If nothing else this will teach me better than to make promises like these,_ Hikaru thought while nodding and handing the notes to the teen. "It's not just that, either," he said after a moment of silence, pursing his lips.

"What else is it, then?" Sai asked without looking up from the notes Hikaru had written.

"Well, the captain of the kendo club is really scary and will probably beat the crap out of me if I'll quit and the PE teacher is one of those really ambitious people and I think he'd make my PE lessons torture if I'd quit," Hikaru sighed, thinking back to the captain of the Kendo club with a shudder. "And the senseis in my martial art lessons are pretty much like that too, they would probably guilt-trip me if I'd quit. I've seen them do it to few others already…"

While Sai stifled a chuckle - which was really more of a giggle than chuckle - Hikaru sighed heavily. _And Toya Akira is too nice and too creepy for me to quit. I can't tell if he would do the whole "I'm disappointed in you, Shindo," thing too or get all murderous on me,_ he thought with a long face. _Creepy girly weirdo._

"Bit more you could chew anyway," Sai chuckled, throwing a glance at him. "Do you really think you can keep it up as you have, though? If you really overwork yourself, it might get a bit unhealthy for you."

"I'll just eat more," Hikaru huffed.

"Food doesn't solve everything," the teen shook his head, turning his eyes back to the notes. "You also need more sleep if you work out more. There is also the danger of stressing yourself. And of course, doing all that athletic activity you can pull a muscle or get injured."

"Stop fussing, I'm fine. And if I do get some problem, I'll just head to the nurse's office and have it fixed. I'm not complete idiot," the boy answered with a yawn. "How's the notes?" he then asked.

"Seems good enough," Sai sighed. "Let's go through them then."

After Hikaru had started at Haze, Sai had treated him ramen less, which was a real pity. But it was understandable too, though. With so much to do during a session, so much to remember at once, Hikaru couldn't give as good results as before. Sai also asked him to review the notes later on more often now as well, since he couldn't make it in time during the sessions.

Sometimes it looked like Sai was considering easing up on him, making the sessions easier. He had this look of worried guilt in his eyes when ever Hikaru struggled to remember answer to some question and couldn't. He didn't ease up the pace, though, and for that Hikaru was somewhat grateful. As hard as it was, it would probably just piss him off if Sai would go easy on him.

"Are you…" Sai asked that evening after Hikaru had seen him to the door. "Are you… studying Go too?" he asked it quietly and without looking at Hikaru as if half afraid of the answer but not wanting to show it.

"I'm not gonna tell you that," Hikaru said, making the teen snap his eyes at him with surprise. The look of hurt in Sai's face faded away as Hikaru stuck his tongue out. "I still have two weeks to go, idiot," the younger boy said. _No way am I going to risk it by telling him that I've been studying,_ he thought. _I don't want to give him any chance to prepare himself. Nope._

"Alright then," Sai smiled and bowed at him. "Good night, Hikaru."

"Good night, Sai," Hikaru said. After the front door closed after the teen, he sighed and turned around to head back upstairs. There he fell to sit on the floor beside his bed before reaching underneath it and pulling a card board box out. Inside it he had Go tutorial books, magazines and foldable Go set he had managed to find from a cheap second hand store.

_Bah,_ he thought while unfolding the toy of a Goban and opening the plastic cups filled with chipped glass stones. _Why am I doing this again…?_ He wondered while opening the nearest book and starting to recreate a game in it. While struggling to understand the complex moves that had been played and exactly why they worked the way they did, he didn't notice that soon he had a small smile on his face.

x

Merryish X-mas :3


	6. To Hope

**VI chapter**

**To Hope**

Sai wasn't really sure if he had truly expected Hikaru to keep his word. The boy hadn't lied to him yet and he had done his all to keep the promises he made, even the slightly overboard one about becoming a stuntman that was now using up most of Hikaru's time. But still. Go was different, it was complicated, and Sai wasn't sure if Hikaru was fit for it.

But he had been hoping because in Hikaru there was potential for many things and if that potential was used on Go, then… then something great could be born. Also, Hikaru was possibly the closest thing Sai had had to a friend in a long time - or at least the boy was someone who wasn't trying to copy him or take him down like many of his classmates were. So Sai had hoped… while possibly preparing for a disappointment.

But then, when exactly thirty one days had gone by, Hikaru had pointed accusing finger at him. "Today we play and I'm going to kick your ass!" the boy had said, maybe with a little bit of false arrogance, and Sai wasn't sure if he had been so happy in a long time. Or so worried.

"Man, your house hasn't changed at all in the last month," Hikaru muttered while Sai led him inside. "Are you ever going to get more stuff here?"

"I don't think so. I prefer things to be a bit Spartan. Unneeded possessions would probably just distract me from my studying and music," Sai answered before leading the boy to the living room-bedroom where the Goban was. "Would you like something to drink?" he asked. "I could make us some tea…"

"I'm fine," Hikaru shrugged. "Let's just play, okay?" despite his previous boldness he seemed slightly nervous as he pulled the Goban from beside the bookcase. "Come on."

"Alright," Sai murmured and sat across Hikaru in seiza. For a moment he wondered about if he should offer Hikaru a handicap. Even though it had been a long time, he had played much longer than Hikaru had, and there was no way for Hikaru to catch up to that in mere month.

"Nigiri," Hikaru demanded while opening the bowls. With a mildly amused nod, Sai set the white stone bowl beside him before grapping a handful of the shell stones. Holding them in his fist on top of the Goban he waited Hikaru to make his choice first. The boy placed down two black stones and Sai released the stones in his hand. The number came uneven.

While taking the black stones, Sai again wondered about offering Hikaru a handicap, especially now that he had the black stones. He had too much advantage over the younger boy. Hikaru, however, seemed to give no thoughts to worries like that, as he bowed his head. "Onegaishimasu."

"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," Sai answered almost automatically before realising to his dismay that they were really going to play this unfair game. He hesitated for a moment, looking at the yet blank board between them. Then he glanced at Hikaru who was looking up seriously, daring him to make his move.

_Well… I suppose…_ Sai thought worriedly, and placed the first stone to the board. _It doesn't have to be a serious game. I can play Shidougo. It has been a while, but… _he looked up to Hikaru again as the boy thought for a moment. Then Hikaru placed a stone down, the way he held the stone between his fore and middle finger making Sai smile with relief. _He really has been practicing and with real stones._

The thought made him feel a burst of something inside him, excited curiosity perhaps. How far could have Hikaru come in the last month? He hadn't even held the stones a month ago, but now he already held them with confidence of someone who was comfortable with Go. Hikaru had the capability to learn quickly if he actually put some effort to it, though he rarely did. Had he been serious about learning Go? If he had, if he had studied daily, then…

It was a surprisingly exciting thought. Forgetting his worries about uneven games, Sai leaned forward and decided to play the game to test Hikaru's ability. He wanted to know, he really did. Forgetting any notions of winning or losing or unfairness, Sai set up situations to see how Hikaru would react. The boy answered with intense concentration and his playing… was surprising.

He didn't play like someone who had just a month ago grasped the stones, and certainly not like one who only knew the basics. He didn't go immediately after Sai's vulnerable stones or take the offers Sai set up, instead his eyes scanned the board as if looking for traps and thinking the bigger picture. This wasn't the act of one who only knew the bare essential.

_He has studied only with full board,_ Sai realised quickly. _Whoever taught him and however he learned… it's done him well. Hikaru doesn't go looking for individual battles like true beginner would. He's keeping the entire board in his sight…_ the teen looked up. Hikaru was already struggling against Sai's skill but he wasn't giving up. _I wonder who taught him._

_His skill isn't anything great yet, though,_ the teen mused straightening his back while waiting for Hikaru to continue. _In serious game I would have long since crushed him. But to get this far in a mere month?_ It wasn't the skill he was impressed, though he certainly hadn't expected Hikaru to get this far in such short time. It was Hikaru's attitude that caught his attention. Serious, concentrated and alert. It was like that of serious player.

"Hikaru, let's stop here," Sai said when Hikaru obviously couldn't come up with a way of winning. The boy gave him a look to which the elder boy smiled. "I have studied Go far longer than you have, it was never a question if you could win this game," he said gently, turning his eyes to the board. "But you certainly surprised me."

The boy huffed. "I really wanted to win," he muttered. "You're way better than I expected. I thought you hadn't played in years."

"I haven't but Go is something you can't really forget. And I have still been studying Go very often," Sai motioned towards the bookcase at their side. "But never mind that. You… came further along during the last month than I expected. How did you study?"

"I had someone at a Go salon teach me and I studied from books and magazines and stuff," Hikaru answered, rubbing his neck. "I even bought a used foldable Goban. Cut my fingers on the stones a few times, they were all broken," he muttered, frowning at his fingers.

"You studied every day?" Sai asked with surprise. "How, from all the rest of your studying, did you manage to find the time to study Go?"

"Well, I didn't exactly study it for hours or anything. But for a little while, like half an hour or something, when ever I had the time - and usually before I went to bed…" the boy shrugged before frowning at the board. "Obviously wasn't enough."

"Well, it takes time to gain true strength in Go, but for you to have this far in mere month… impressive, truly impressive," Sai hummed. If Hikaru were to continue studying and playing Go, then… in few years he would be a marvel to behold and play against. Looking up to the boy carefully, the teen frowned. _But would that be too much to ask…?_ he wondered.

"What?" Hikaru asked irritably. "What's the weird look for?"

"Hikaru, do you like Go?" Sai asked after a moment of thought. "While studying, did you do it just because you wanted to show me or did you actually enjoy it?"

The boy frowned and glanced at the board. Then he ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh. "I guess it was interesting. It was sort of calming to spend few minutes replaying a game after coming home from practice and stuff like that," he frowned a little. "Go really isn't what I thought it was too. Really not like the boring old man's game I thought…"

Sai blinked and then smiled. "Do you think you are going to continue studying it?" he asked almost shyly. "I could… play you and teach you if you'd like it. After the study sessions and the like of course…"

It had been fun, to play again after so long. And with Hikaru there would never be the same problems as there could be with other players because Hikaru knew… about his past with Go. And Sai really, truly wanted to play Hikaru once the boy would've had a chance to study for while longer. If he could be this good with so little time, who knew what he would be like by the time the year would be over. And beyond that…

"Well… I suppose it wouldn't hurt. It was kind of fun," Hikaru nodded. "Though my clubs and martial arts lessons take the priority. I'm still gonna become a stuntman."

"Alright, alright," Sai chuckled and stood up. "I'm going to get myself some tea. Would you like some? I think I have some juice too if you prefer it…"

"I'll take the juice," Hikaru answered, leaning back to his hands.

"Alright, I'll be back in a moment," Sai nodded and turned to head to the kitchen. On his first step, however, he accidentally kicked the leg of the Goban, tugging it roughly and scattering the stones on top of it to the floor. "Oh!" he yelped and quickly turned around. The game on top of the board was completely ruined. "Oh, I didn't mean to… let me fix that quickly…"

"No, I'll get it. Go get your tea, girly boy," Hikaru shooed him away and started to gather the stones from the floor. Throwing a look at the Goban, Sai nodded with a sigh and headed to the kitchen. It was a pity that the game had scattered; he would've liked to discuss some moves Hikaru had made on it. Well the game was still stored in his memory so he could recreate it later.

When he returned to Hikaru with a tray, he did not find empty Goban. Instead the game they had played was again arranged on top of it, just like it had been before he had kicked the Goban. "Hikaru?" Sai asked with shock. "Did you recreate the game?"

"Yeah? I said I would, didn't I?" Hikaru asked, snatching the glass of juice from the tray and taking a sip.

"But you… you remembered it?"

"Of course I did," the younger boy gave him a confused look. "Something wrong with it? Don't tell me you couldn't remember it."

"Of course I could, but you…" Sai frowned. Unable to continue he sat down and placed the tray beside the Goban. _Now_ _I'm starting to think that Hikaru is a genius in his own right,_ he thought with slight bewilderment. _After a month he can already do this? No… he was probably able to do it before too. _"Since when have you been able to do this?" he asked, motioning the board.

"What do you mean, since when?" Hikaru asked. "Give me a break, Sai. I've only been playing for a month, you know. I haven't exactly been doing it before."

"That's not… what I meant," Sai mumbled with little bit of shock. _He makes it sound like it's natural,_ he mused. _No. He_ _might be natural himself._ The teen's eyes hardened. "Hikaru, I don't think I'm never going to let you stop playing Go."

"Huh?" the younger boy asked with surprise.

"You have an innate talent with it," Sai spoke with determination. _And I'm going to hone it to perfection._

They spend the following hour discussing the game. Hikaru was as good, though somewhat reluctant, student with Go as he was with school material. He listened as Sai explained why one move wouldn't have worked and why he should have made move here instead of there. Nodding here and there, the boy asked questions and then argued against Sai's opinion if it went against his own. The discussion was surprisingly lively.

Later after Hikaru had left, Sai gazed upon the game they had played and knew would cherish the memory of it for the rest of his life. Now that Hikaru wasn't present he allowed the tears of happiness to fall and smiled through them. Hikaru didn't fully realise it, but he had done something really amazing. He had thrown a rope and given Sai back a piece of his life he had been missing for years.

Hikaru had given him hope.

x

_Sai's probably a better player than Toya,_ Hikaru mused while heading towards the Toya Go salon. He wanted to let his other tutor know that he wouldn't need any more lessons. Sai would be teaching go from here on and Hikaru preferred it that way, even though Sai did get a bit weird when it came to Go it seemed. _Toya is good, but Sai… Sai's better._

Sai had picked the game they had played apart expertly and pointing out each and every mistake Hikaru had made - and there had been lot of them. But he had also explained better moves and why the plans Hikaru had made would have never worked. He had shown a better ways of doing what Hikaru had intended to do, better moves to play… He was just as good teacher with Go as he was with school stuff. Better even because Sai seemed to have passion for Go he didn't show even for social studies.

Toya wasn't like that. There was something cold and hollow in Toya Akira. As friendly and kind as Toya seemed, something was… he didn't have the warmth Sai had. It was hard to explain, but Sai's way of teaching was much more comfortable - not to mention that Sai knew exactly what to say to make Hikaru understand it. Toya used terms and said things Hikaru didn't know and often didn't explain them well enough.

_Well, Toya taught me enough I suppose, since Sai decided to teach me himself,_ Hikaru mused. He wasn't sure what to think about that though. Originally he had wanted to play Go against Sai because the teen had seemed so… desolate and it just didn't fit Sai. But now Hikaru wanted more. There was brilliance in Sai when he played Go and it was incredible to watch. Sai, despite being a girly and occasionally creepy weirdo, was incredible.

Go was fun and Hikaru wanted to continue playing it, much to his surprise. _It's like a sky,_ he mused, looking up to the darkening evening sky. The lights of Tokyo blocked out the stars but he knew they were there. _A starlit sky._ Smiling brightly, Hikaru sighed. _One day I'll be as good as Sai and instead of following his lead like I did with that game, we'll play together. Yeah, that will be cool…_

Looking down again as he came to the Toya salon, Hikaru headed inside. There Ichikawa greeted him, already adjusted to seeing him coming. "Hello there, Shindo-kun," she said. "Are you here for Shidougo? Akira is in the back giving Hiroshi-san a lesson."

"Nah, I'm just stopping by, I have something to say to Toya. Do I have to pay since I'm not going to play?" he asked.

"Well, I suppose not if you're just visiting," the woman nodded. Hikaru smiled at her brilliantly and then headed to the back. He raised his hand in greeting but didn't speak so that he wouldn't interrupt the lesson. It looked like Toya was almost done, though, so he sat down to wait.

After a moment the game was over. There was a brief discussion before the balding man thanked Toya for the game and left them alone. "Did we have something planned for today?" Toya asked from Hikaru. "Because if I had known you were coming I would've let the others know that I'd be teaching you."

"No need. I just wanted to stop by to tell you that I won't come here again," Hikaru answered with a shrug of his shoulders while pushing his hands to his pockets. "I played against my friend and he's going to teach me from now on. So I won't be bothering you anymore."

"Oh," the other boy murmured, looking maybe a little bit disappointed. "I was hoping… well you were a good and quick student," he said with a smile and nod. "It was a pleasure to teach you."

"It was fun to learn too," Hikaru smiled though he did kind of doubt the other boy's words. Toya was a really good player, no one in the salon - except Toyo Koyo and Ogata Seiji, who had came to the salon every now and then and scared the crap out of Hikaru - could beat him. Teaching a poor player like Hikaru probably bored the future pro to death. "And apparently I learned enough to satisfy my friend."

"That's good to hear. How did the game go?" Toya asked curiously.

"He played Shidougo against me," Hikaru sighed mournfully, thinking back to the game he and Sai had played. It had been as horrible as it been brilliant, even worse than playing against Toya. Sai played Shidougo that didn't feel like Shidougo at all - it had felt like serious game. "And picked my game apart afterwards."

The other boy chuckled. "Sounds like a good player. I would like to play him some time."

"I doubt he'd like to play you though, he has a… aversion towards the pros," Hikaru grinned awkwardly. "You're going to become one, right?"

"Yes, I'm most likely going to take the exam this summer," Toya nodded.

"We'll, I'll be rooting for you, I bet you'll do great in it," the boy with bleached bangs said and stood up. "Well I just wanted to let you know that you wouldn't expect me to come again. Wouldn't want you to waste your time, you know," he said. "I probably should head home. I'm already way late for dinner."

"You can stop by here every now and then if you want to," Toya said. "Getting lessons from more than one person won't harm you, you know. It's the opposite really."

"Maybe but… I think prefer to play Sai. He's a better teacher for someone like me, I think. You should be teaching kids like you, I mean, really serious players and such," Hikaru shrugged. "Besides if you're going to become pro, you're going to be real busy, right? Playing against actual pro players gotta be more interesting than teaching a newbie like me."

"I suppose. It was nice teaching you though," Toya stood up and offered his hand to Hikaru. "I hope you'll grow strong in Go. I think you have potential with it."

"Thanks. Good luck with the pros," Hikaru nodded and shook the hand firmly. "Well then… Bye, Toya."

"Thank you," the other junior high schooler nodded and smiled back at him. It seemed somehow sad but Hikaru couldn't really figure out how. "And goodbye, Shindo."

As Hikaru headed out and then towards the train station, he wondered about people like Toya Akira - and people like Sai. Toya Akira would become pro, there was no doubt about that. Toya-sensei and Ogata-sensei both believed in him, and as creepy as they were Hikaru preferred to agree with them.

_Unlike Sai, Toya won't have any problems with cheaters. If someone will cheat against him and blame it on him, everyone will believe him rather than the cheater. The Meijin's son would never lie about Go, after all,_ Hikaru mused somewhat sadly and felt sorry for Sai. _I wonder if anyone else's future with Go has been ruined like Sai's has been. Have other people been banned from ever playing professionally...?_

_Well, it doesn't matter. From here on I'll be playing against Sai. That'll keep him happy, and I'll get to learn from him in the process,_ Hikaru grinned. Maybe neither he nor Sai would ever become a pro at Go, but who cared about that? Sai would become cellist, Hikaru would become a stuntman and in midst of it all they would play Go. That… didn't sound bad at all.

x

It's been a while, but better late than never, yes? Sadly this is about as much we're going to see about Akira for now. He might how up in later chapters, I'm not sure yet. I have plans for him, though, oh do I ever have plans for him...

xD Firedraygon said that they're expecting Hikaru to "Because it's my Nindo!". That's hilarious because more than once I've found myself almost hearing Hikaru say "...dattebayo" at someone (probably as sarcasm). I've managed to stop it from happening so far, though...


	7. To Understand

**VII chapter**

**To Understand**

Since the first time they had played Hikaru had became a regular visitor at Sai's apartment. After or before a martial arts lesson, he would stop by so that they could play some Go. Sai also visited him more often than just for study sessions and he no longer taught Hikaru for payment. After the whole Go thing started, he had decided that he would continue teaching Hikaru even after the Shindos' would stop paying him to so he figured that might as well get over it now. So they had gone from tutor and student into friends.

Sai still taught Hikaru about everything he deemed Hikaru needed to learn, and if the tutoring had been tough, this was even worse. With no time limits to bother him and no other things to take up his time, except for his music practices, Sai had free hands with Hikaru, sort of speak. And he was very determinate to use this freedom to the fullest. Hikaru wasn't sure if it was good or bad, but Sai now forced him to master his school subjects even faster so that they would have more time for Go.

_I hope Sai will never become a school teacher,_ he mused to himself after Sai had deemed his math homework good enough. They were at Sai's apartment - now days the study sessions happened even there. _He would probably drive all his students crazy. Like literally, padded walls and straightjackets crazy._ He wasn't sure how he kept up with the whole thing, but so far things had worked out, somewhat.

_Except for that,_ Hikaru thought, throwing a glare towards a drink Sai had made him. A vitamin mix, Sai made him drink one of them at least every other day. _It'll help me keep up my strength, my ass… Sometimes I feel like a hero in some shonen manga, who goes through hellish training to beat some big bad guy._

"Shall we play then?" Sai asked, handing Hikaru his math notes back.

The younger boy nodded and quickly repacked his school bag before pushing it aside. As the elder teen reached for the Goban, Hikaru took the tall glass holding the orange vitamin mix and forced himself to take a swallow. "Blergh," he murmured more to express his dislike to Sai than because of the taste. The vitamin drinks weren't bad exactly, just overly sweet.

"It's good for you. With all the physical and mental activity you do, you need to keep yourself properly nourished," Sai said calmly while setting the Goban between them.

"You're making me sound like a plant capable of watering itself," Hikaru grimaced.

The elder boy chuckled and opened the stone bowls. "If only," he murmured somewhat wistfully while handing the black stones to Hikaru. "But sadly you don't seem to be able to water yourself so I need to force you to."

"Tch!" Hikaru muttered, placing the bowl beside the Goban and taking one black stone. "I can take care of myself just fine. And besides, not only mom but the PE teacher and my martial arts senseis all are feeding all sort of nutrition crap to me," he growled, snapping the stone to the board and grimacing at the memory of the power bars the PE teacher favoured. "Seriously with all you people making me eat this much, I'm gonna end up a fatty in no time."

"Athletes need to eat more because exercise raises the metabolism," Sai answered, placing a white stone down calmly. "The more you exercise the more you need to eat - and as long as you keep exercising, I doubt you gain much extra weight."

"Hmm. Yeah, sure," the younger boy sighed, glancing at the board and placing down his stone. Their games now were more casual than they had been in the beginning. They didn't bother with formalities but that never made the games less serious. And Hikaru always got his ass kicked because he couldn't handle Sai going easy on him. So, though the elder teen was superior, Hikaru never accepted a handicap. Sai did, however, play teaching games with him often.

_The most annoying thing about that is that I can never tell if he's playing seriously with me or not. He makes it all seem serious. I think he does it to force me play seriously,_ Hikaru sighed silently and after Sai had played his move Hikaru placed another black stone down.

"Do you like them at all? The new hobbies you have?" Sai asked as they continued to play.

"Yeah, I do. Gymnastics is pretty fun now that I'm adjusted to all the damn stretching and kendo can be plain wicked even though the captain is still a bit of an asshole. And of course martial arts rock," Hikaru nodded and then frowned. "During the last practice, one of the senseis asked me why I'm learning martial arts. When I told him about the stuntman thing, he said that I should maybe get some acting lessons."

"That sounds reasonable. Even as a stuntman you need to know how to act," Sai nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't have any time for it," Hikaru shook his head. "I'm thinking that I could maybe take some lessons during summer holiday. Since I'm not in the kendo or gymnastic teams, I probably won't need to join any of the camps during then, so I should have the time for it."

"You should still continue with the gymnastic exercises during the summer, though," the other said. "Those are skills that can diminish when you don't use them."

"Yeah, the teacher said the same thing," Hikaru nodded. "He keeps recommending local gyms for us lower and first year members. I'll probably join one of them too. I'm not going to do any kendo during the summer, though, since it isn't as important and I'm not exactly aiming to become a champion or anything."

"Understandable," Sai nodded.

"What are you going to do during the summer?" Hikaru asked.

"Study. Practice. Compose a little maybe. Things I usually do," the elder teen shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmph," Hikaru muttered, slapping a black stone down to the board which he had already mostly lost. _He has things so easy. Must be nice being a genius,_ he mused. "I'm losing because we're talking too much. I can't concentrate."

"It's good training but if you wish we can start a new game," Sai answered, to which Hikaru agreed. The second game was played in comfortable though concentrated silence. The outcome was more than obvious but Hikaru fought as hard and as long as he could and as always tried to learn as much as he could from the defeat. It was, after all, always like that with Sai.

The smile given to him by the elder teen afterwards was enough to make up for the defeat, though. "Thank you for the game, Hikaru," Sai bowed his head to him. "I will make us some tea and we can then discuss the game. Would you like some snacks as well?"

"If you have any, sure," Hikaru said and stood up to stretch his feet. Even though he sat in seiza often these days - in kendo and during martial arts both - he still wasn't used to it and his legs tended to go to sleep. How Sai could spend hours sitting like that, he would probably never know.

Walking around the room a few times, Hikaru ended up before Sai's desk. It was usually well organised but this time there were few open books and some papers on top of it. _I guess I interrupted Sai's own studying when I came,_ the boy thought with small measure of guilt. _I wonder if what he was studying is important…?_

Picking the top paper, Hikaru glanced through it. _Guh. Figures that he has a perfect handwriting. He probably has calligraphy as hobby or something,_ the boy thought with annoyance. It seemed like an essay. _Male colours? What sort of title is that?_ Hikaru blinked and then sat down to the office chair to read through what Sai had written. Within few minutes his ears were turning red and his eyes were wide. _What the heck...?_

"Hikaru?" Sai's voice asked, and the boy looked up. The elder teen was standing at the door way with a tray in his hand. "You read my essay, huh?" he asked with slightly forced calm while walking to the Goban and setting the tray down to the floor. "How was it?"

"Uh… I only read part of it," Hikaru muttered, placing the paper down to the table. The mental images were a bit harder to shake off, though. "Social studies essay?" he then asked.

"Yes," Sai answered still with slightly forced serenity. "It's extra credit essay I'm doing for my sociology course. Your tea," he motioned to the other cup while taking his own and taking a sip of it.

Hikaru hesitated before standing up and walking back to the Goban. "Extra credit, that sounds just like something you'd do," he muttered while taking the cup. "What I don't get is why are you writing essay on gays."

"It's more of a study of history of homosexuality in Japan and how outside influence affected how people viewed it during different eras," the elder teen answered with slightly strained voice, throwing Hikaru a brief smile before taking a sip of his tea. "It's a subject that has been viewed in a variety of different lights throughout the ages. The negative light is rather recent development."

"O… kay," Hikaru nodded slowly. _Sai turns into a dictionary when he's feeling awkward?_ he wondered with slight confusion. "That didn't answer my question, really," he then said. When Sai just kept staring his tea cup, the boy frowned. _Shy dictionary. That's a new one,_ he mused, scratching his neck. "Uh. I didn't really get to read much of the essay, so. Um… could you explain it to me?" he offered. "What it's about?"

The elder teen glanced up sharply, his gaze flickering over Hikaru's face before he sighed. After lowering his tea cup to the floor he started to explain about the essay, speaking in the same tone of voice he did during the study sessions, making Hikaru feel like he should be taking notes. Except it was possibly the most embarrassing lecture Hikaru had ever heard.

Sai spoke about how Chinese concepts of homosexuality had affected ancient Japanese traditions and how it had been acceptable during those times. How in the Heian period men were often moved by beautiful youths and it had never seen as sinful act - how even emperors had encaged in such acts.

"Even Tale of Genji has references to it," the teen said before moving on and explaining that in Buddhist monasteries it had once been fairly common for young acolytes to entertain the monks. Then he explain how homosexuality had been once part of the military class by custom and how young samurai apprenticing under older and more experienced man would also be lovers for their masters.

By the time Sai reached the subject of kabuki actors and kagema, Hikaru was staring at the Goban with wide eyes and heavily reddened face. But then the elder teen told how the contact with western beliefs and religions during the Meiji era had changed things and Japan's wish to appear more civilized had started changing how people viewed the matter. There was somehow sad quality to his tone of voice as he spoke of the decline of former beliefs.

"That's about it," Sai said with surprising calmness while taking his now probably cooled tea to his hands. "I haven't finished writing the essay yet, though."

"Hm," Hikaru answered, taking tea cup into his hand. The tea was cool now. There was a long silence between them as Hikaru mulled over what he had just heard. Though Sai, being who he was, could have studied the matter merely out of curiosity - Sai was the sort of person who could do that without any embarrassment - Hikaru wasn't sure that that was it. His friend was acting too awkward for it to be mere school assignment, mere extra credit project. No. This was… personal.

The silence had stretched for a while before Hikaru finally looked up. "Are you gay, Sai?" he asked, expecting Sai to either deny it or defend himself. The other did neither, merely took a sip of his tea and then stared at the cup in silence. After another moment of silence, Hikaru snorted. "That does sort of explain few things."

"Like what?" Sai asked with forced calm but with slightly defensive look on his eyes. Like expecting something negative - like actually expecting _Hikaru_ to…

As the younger boy took in the guarded expression on the other's face, things that had never really made sense about Sai started to get clearer. _I get it now…_ he mused. _It never made sense that a guy like Sai wouldn't have any friends but I… get it now. His grades, his looks, the fact that his uncle is in the board of school governors and then this? And in a really competitive school like the one he goes to? Yeah, all this would make it pretty hard for him to get friends there…_

The understanding made him like the look on Sai's face even less. Especially since it was directed at him.

Slowly Hikaru placed his tea to the floor before reaching over the Goban and taking hold of the strands of dark hair surrounding Sai's face. The elder teen gave him a confused as Hikaru tugged on the hair. "Now I know why you're such a girly boy," the younger teen said and with a grin tugged on the hair again.

For a moment Sai just stared at him with wide eyes. Then he quickly bowed his head and looked down. "Meanie," the elder teen muttered with a small, quivering smile, raising his hand to his face to hide his eyes. It did nothing to hide the shaking of his shoulders or his emotional disarray, though.

Hikaru said nothing for a moment before tugging on the strand of hair again gently. "Come on, you girly boy, pull yourself together," he said somewhat awkwardly while pulling his hand back. "We have a game to discuss."

"Y-yes," Sai answered, quickly wiping his eyes and raising his chin. His smile was still a bit shaky, but it seemed to gain strength as Hikaru just continued to grin. With a choked chuckle, the elder teen took a last sip of his tea before turning to the Goban and starting to explain exactly why the moves Hikaru had made hadn't worked.

"By the way," Hikaru spoke after a moment. "What's the Tale of Genji?"

The horrified look in Sai's face promised him another lesson.

x

It had never really been a secret, the fact that Sai preferred males over females. Everyone in the school he went to knew from teachers to students - even the kids at his junior high had known. His uncle and aunt knew as well, and had done their best to accept it even though they couldn't fully understand it.

Sai had been lucky. Though there had been some kids back when he had been in junior high, who hadn't been able to accept his sexuality, he had never truly been bullied for it. He was simply too high in the educational food chain for that - kids that stayed at the top of the student records simply weren't bullied in the schools he had been in, the teachers didn't allow it. However, that didn't mean that people accepted it with open arms.

Running his fingers through the shorter strands of his long hair which usually settled to frame his face, the teen smiled sadly. He was a bit too weird for people to accept easily. His manners were too good, his looks were too good, his marks, his behaviour, his determination with his goals… the school counsellors had said it over and over. Because he was too good, it made people think that he lived in different world than others and that made it hard for people to approach him - or understand him. Simply put, no one had ever felt like his equal - and his sexuality had certainly never helped there, nor had his personality really.

"You were born in a wrong era," one of the counsellors had once said him. "Guy like you would've been happier living in the Heian period." Subtle way of saying that for a guy living in the modern era, Sai was rather emotional.

Sai didn't really think he was hard to understand. Complete opposite. There were few things that interested him and there was really nothing he hated - except those horrible frogs that used to live in his uncle's koi pond, gods he loathed the beasts. In the end, Sai thought he was pretty simple guy. He learned quickly, wanted to be a cellist and liked Go. That was… pretty much it.

Maybe he was more determined about his goals than some of the others, but that was nothing unusual in his school. The guy at his school who got the second top scores was planning to be a program designer - had been for years. Though that guy didn't have many friends either, but that was because he obviously didn't want any - he seemed most comfortable with having his laptop as his companion. The third to top was pretty much the same - she was aspiring to be a doctor.

Sighing, the teen looked at the Goban still displaying the game he and Hikaru had played - last one of the many they had played that day. Whatever it was that made people stay away from him, Hikaru seemed immune to it. Sai had been worried that it would be complete opposite, though. Hikaru wasn't calm and collected like the students in Sai's school, not as good at ignoring the things around him in favour of his own interest. He was brash and loud about his opinions and often displayed a variety of slightly malicious sense of humour. The kind of person whom Sai could actually see as a slightly homophobic…

_He's also a prime example why judging the book by it's cover often leads to wrong conclusion,_ Sai mused, bowing his head with slight smile. What was on Hikaru's surface and what was inside him… were different. Hikaru was in his own way deep and understanding, it just didn't breach the exterior too often. That was why it was easy for Sai to too often forget the brief glimpses he had gotten of the inner side of Hikaru and chalk the spark of higher emotional intuition as his slacker-bound talent.

_Hikaru… I'm glad you are my friend,_ the teen thought to himself, raising his hand and wiping his eyes before the tears of choked happiness could fall. In his awkward way Hikaru had accepted him without hesitation, which was something no one so close to him had ever done. Even his aunt and uncle had spoke of phases and getting over it and fixing it as if his sexuality was some sort of character flaw. Or like it could be fixed.

_It's not something that can be just cured,_ Sai thought with somewhat hurt annoyance. He wasn't exactly sure why he preferred men over women. He had never been in a single relationship with either sex, but he had known for years that he'd rather be held by strong arms of a male than hold a delicate female figure in his. That had been enough for him.

But not for others. Few times when he had told this to someone, like with his guardians, they had said something along the lines of, "But you have never even been with a girl, so how can you know you like them better?" Hikaru hadn't even given a thought to it. He had just tugged his hair and accepted him with teasing words and awkward grin. True, Hikaru as a bit too young to really even think such thing seriously, but still…

Sai smiled, lowering his hand as he failed to hold the flow of emotion at bay. First Go, then this. _Even though no one has ever really opposed me and told me I'm wrong the way I am… I always knew I wasn't normal in their eyes,_ he thought with amused chuckle. _It feels nice to have someone accept me the way I am. Even if that someone seems to make me cry a whole lot these days…_

_x_

Gah, lateish again. Mah apologies, been busy.

I had SO much fun researching for this chapter xD aah, Wikipedia, how I love you. And you probably slightly inaccurate well information. Just about everything Sai babbled about came from Wikipedia, along with his essay name: "The Japanese term _Nanshoku_ (男色) is the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese, which literally mean "male colours." The character 色 (colour) still has the meaning of sexual pleasure in both China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to male-male sex in ancient Japan."

I shall work on incorporating more characters into the fic, but for now it's a bit hard, as Sai and Hikaru have no intention of getting into professional Go - and that's where most Hikaru No Go characters are. I'll figure something out.


	8. To Adapt

**VIII chapter**

**To Adapt**

Stretching was starting to slowly but steadily become part of Hikaru's every day life. When he woke up each morning he obediently did his stretched and push ups and sit ups and so forth like kendo captain and PE teacher and martial arts senseis always told him to do. These days he managed to come out of them without being forced to limp towards school each morning in that insanely early hour he had to woke up. And then, in his gymnastic practice, he needed to do even more stretches along with all the other members, as well as do a little jog and all other warming-up exercises they started with. And then, after all the stretching and other activity of gymnastic, he headed to kendo where he started, of course, with more stretches. Not to mention about the martial arts lessons.

_I'll turn into a noodle eventually. Into a fat, well nourished noodle,_ he often thought, but these days he was getting less and less annoyed with it. Probably because stretching was starting to hurt less than it did in the beginning.

After the talk with Sai, Hikaru found himself stretching a bit more than before - fact which he tried not to look too closely into, though. Maybe it was that he didn't know what to think about the whole thing or was trying just not to think about it at all, but every time he thought about Sai sexuality his mind suddenly jumped off to think, _I think I should do some extra stretches, _which he promptly did.

The whole thing had changed really nothing between him and Sai, Hikaru was happy to find out. Sai was still same the merciless tutor like he had been before, still the girly geek, still the Go maniac who wanted to become a cellist and be a part in an orchestra. Maybe the senior high schooler was a bit happier and a bit more at ease than before but other than that nothing seemed to change.

And that, in Hikaru opinion, was just fine because honestly he couldn't quite wrap his mind around the whole sexuality thing. So he didn't even try. Sai was Sai and that was enough. And if Hikaru did some extra stretches in order to stop himself from thinking of complicated things then… good. Maybe this way he'd be able to do splits quicker. He was really starting to get jealous at those in the gymnastics club and in the martial arts lessons, who could do splits so easily.

Stretching was what he was doing on yet another day while waiting Sai to come over and give him a lesson. He had had a martial arts lesson just half an hour ago - plus the travel time - and though they had done their stretches at the end, he still redid them to get rid of the tenseness. They had been doing some high kicks and he had nearly pulled a muscle while trying to get his as high as the others.

_I really don't need to be sore tomorrow, the PE teacher will have my head,_ he mused while slowly easing his torso towards his knees. From downstairs he could hear the doorbell ringing and then how his mother was greeted by Sai's voice. _Hm. The girly boy's here. I wonder if he'll want to play go afterwards,_ Hikaru wondered, turning his attention to his sorry excuse of a Goban. _I really got to get a new one. Maybe I should ask grandpa, he might be willing to buy me one._

"Hikaru are you here?" Sai's voice asked while the door was pushed fully opened. The teen was wearing his school uniform again, apparently he had came straight from school. "Doing stretches, hm? Have you strained yourself again?"

"I haven't," Hikaru threw a mild glare at him while leaning his elbows against the floor. "Just a sore muscle, is all. And what do you mean, again?"

"Nothing at all," the elder boy gave him a mildly amused smile before walking towards his desk. "So, anything you have been having difficulties with, or shall we merely go over what you've studied lately?" he asked while taking seat and looking over Hikaru's desk in search for school material.

"English is being a pain in the ass," Hikaru answered while straightening his back and shifting into another stretch.

"We'll look into that, then," Sai nodded and took out Hikaru's English text book. He chuckled almost delightedly at the sight of it going from left to right. Leafing through it he found the chapter Hikaru's class had been reviewing - Hikaru now marked the chapter with a piece of paper from his notebook. "Hm… this is mostly about prepositions. It shouldn't be too hard to go over this."

"Yeah, not for you. That stuff is gibberish for me," the younger boy answered.

The other chuckled. "English isn't hard at all, once you get the hang of it," he assured, throwing a look at him. "You think you can concentrate to the text while stretching?"

"No way. Gimme a moment I'm almost done," Hikaru said and finished the stretching. Then he eased himself off it and stood up. Joining the other by the desk he reached for his writing supplies. "Okay, I'm ready. Fire away."

Sai started. Hikaru wasn't sure if he was shocked or not to hear Sai speak English like a foreigner. Their teacher had a horrible accent in comparison to the way people spoke in the American films Hikaru sometimes watched, but not Sai. The senior high schooler probably would've been right at home and completely comfortable in English speaking country.

_Genius girly boy is a genius,_ Hikaru sighed trying to understand what the other was speaking. He had never been too good at these sorts of things, understanding why some words had such a fancy names and such a fancy positions in a simple sentence. To him it was enough that he could read and write okay, but noo, people had to break every word into their own category and give them a meaning that in the long run made little difference. And now he had to do it with another language.

_What's the point in this? I'll probably never have to speak English to anyone so there's really no use in me learning it, right?_ Hikaru mused but had enough sense than to say it out loud. He was already having a lecture, he didn't need a preaching.

"You're not concentrating," Sai spoke after finishing reading the chapter. He glanced at the younger boy. "Something on your mind?"

"Nah, it's just… I don't get it why I'm supposed to learn this stuff," Hikaru answered, pocking the book. "I'm never going to leave Japan so what's the use in learning English?"

The elder boy's eyebrows lifted with surprise and Hikaru realised that he had done a mistake. Leaning back slowly, Sai's surprised expression turned thoughtful. "There are many reasons why you especially should learn English," the teen then said. "For one there is travelling. Don't you want to go ad see other places outside Japan's shores, see some foreign countries… just go out for a holiday in future?"

Hikaru shrugged his shoulders but it was a good point, he had to admit.

"For two, if you're going to become a stuntman, it's never given that you will always be taking part in solely Japanese productions. Who knows, maybe you'll get a job abroad and do stunts in American film or something similar," Sai gave him a meaningful look. "And, most importantly, English is the commercial language. Especially on the internet."

"Huh?" Hikaru gave him a confused look.

"The more time goes by, the more people reach outside their boarders. International corporations are all around, for example. And English is the language they usually use in communication because, despite not being spoken by as many people as, for example, Mandarin, it's spoken in many countries," Sai shrugged. "So it's a language that is widely understood. And most of the internet is in English. You won't manage to get far in surfing without at least knowing the basics."

The boy beside him frowned with confusion. "Aren't you passionate about it," he muttered, leaning his elbow against the table and his cheek against his palm. "Okay, I could maybe possibly take part in some foreign film, maybe. How about you?"

"Me? I could join foreign orchestra. Of have foreign members in it - maybe even foreign conductor. Music is universal so it happens often, people playing in foreign countries. And of course there might be foreigners in the audience, some of them maybe famous even, who will want to have word with the orchestra members," Sai listed with his fingers. "And so forth and so forth. And I'm planning to study abroad after I'm done with senior high school."

Hikaru blinked with surprise. "You're going to go to a foreign university?"

"Yes, if I can make it," Sai smiled. "Japan isn't exactly behind other countries when it comes to music but I still find that foreign schools are better. And more reputable."

"Oh… that's pretty cool," Hikaru murmured. Studying abroad, he had never even thought about that. And now that he did, it sounded a bit scary. Especially when applied on semi-shy guy like Sai. "Where are you gonna go?" he then asked.

"United States if I can get into the school. They have rather low acceptance percentage. If I can't get there, there are few schools in Germany that would suffice also," Sai shrugged and turned his attention to the book again. "So for me at least English is important. And of course, if I cannot get into the school in United States, I will probably start studying other languages as well."

"You study maniac," Hikaru snorted but he couldn't help but feel more than a bit reeled by what the other had said. Sai was in second year in senior high right now, so in two years he would leave Japan to study… what was rather wow. "Why is internet so important?" he then asked. "There are Japanese sites."

"Yes there are but majority of all the sites are in English - or at least have some English in them," Sai chuckled. "And these days _everything_ is in the internet. You might even find forums and such for future actors and stuntmen and information about such things from the internet…"

The younger boy sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll study seriously," he muttered, poking the other's side in retaliation. "Stop playing the occupation card on me all the time."

"Why ever would I stop doing something that works so efficiently?" Sai laughed softly even while trying to move away from Hikaru's attack. Then, after capturing Hikaru's left hand to keep him from poking, he started to reread the chapter again. With a heavy sigh, Hikaru started to make notes, wondering if English would turn into another extra hobby for him to sacrifice more of his time and brain cells on.

_Damn you Sai, you're turning me into a total geek,_ he grumbled silently, but listened closely to the other's reading and wrote everything important down. After Sai was done reading, they went over the notes. Then Sai had Hikaru reading some English phrases. The younger boy's attempts soon had the elder one suppressing fit of giggles.

"Oh gods, your pronunciation is horrible," Sai snickered behind his hand.

"Shut up, unlike some I'm not a geek," Hikaru glared while throwing his eraser at him. "Meanie."

"Hah, tables are finally turned," Sai chuckled, poking Hikaru's shoulder. "Let's go over those sentences again and then I think we're about done with English. Do you have anything else that's giving you problems?"

Hikaru quickly pushed the other's hand away from his shoulder. "Not as much as English is," he sighed and started to reading though the sentences, making faces all the way and forcing Sai to smother his mirth once more. "You're gonna pull a face muscle doing that," the junior high schooler muttered sullenly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll get better with practice," Sai giggled. "I think we really should stop here, though this is about as much as I can take."

"Hmph," the younger boy huffed with annoyance and made his point across by slapping his pen against the table. "Good. You wanna play some Go? Though that thing," he motioned at his foldable Goban, "sucks and almost all of the stones are chipped."

"I think I'll manage just as well as you do," Sai chuckled and stood up.

"I'm gonna ask grandpa get me a new, better Goban," Hikaru sighed while standing up as well. They sat down to the floor while Hikaru spreaded the Goban between them. "He's a Go freak like you so I think he'd be happy to get me one."

"Go freak like me?" Sai narrowed his eyes amusedly and threw a glance at Hikaru's bookshelves where Go books and magazines were slowly but steadily starting to steal the space previously preserved for manga. "What does that make you, Hikaru?"

"Perfectly normal kid with slightly freakish hobby," the boy snorted somewhat defensively. "No, scratch that. I'm pretty damn cool kid with some cool hobbies and one slightly freakish one."

"You egoistical brute," the other shook his head while checking the stones in the plastic bowl next to him. Since they were white he set them beside the Goban while Hikaru reached for the other bowl. "Have you had the time to study Go since the last time we played?"

"Yeah, a bit," Hikaru shrugged.

"Then let's see if you have learned anything new."

The game started, lasted and ended in the fashion it usually did. Ignoring the part of him which was saying that he wouldn't get his ass kicked so badly if he would just accept a handicap, Hikaru listened to the other as Sai pointed his mistakes out and told him what he should have done instead. He was getting better quicker like this, going head first against Sai's strength, and they both knew it. That was why Sai no longer even offered it.

_I'm too proud to accept handicap anyway. That might be why I keep getting my ass kicked at the martial arts classes too,_ he mused, memorising Sai's hints and pointers as well as he could and making sure to keep then in mind during their next game.

Soon Sai said that he needed to leave. "I have to practice for the contest," he said while they cleared the foldable Goban.

"Contest?" Hikaru asked with confusion.

"Yes, I'm taking part in musical contest this weekend," the elder boy shrugged while dropping the white stones to the plastic bowl. "Number of musicians of my age will be taking part of it and there are different divisions for different instruments. I'll be, of course, playing in the cello division."

"Hm… is there a prize in that sort of thing?" Hikaru asked.

The elder boy chuckled. "The winner in this particular contest will get about hundred thousand yen. And a trophy," he answered and closed the stone bowl. "Would you like to come and watch?" he then suddenly asked before blushing and looking down to the Goban. "I just… you can if you want to. There are usually plenty of spectators in contests like these and…"

The younger boy's eyebrows rose. "Watch you play cello in competition?" He asked thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes. "Are you any good?"

Sai looked mortified. "I wouldn't be taking part in a contest if I didn't think I could win," he said, sounding mildly insulted.

Hikaru snorted and thought about it. He had never heard Sai play the cello - other than hearing it through the door few times when he had visited the other boy. He hadn't given it much thought either, since music wasn't really thing - especially not that classical western stuff, though the classical eastern stuff wasn't any better either.

Scratching his scalp he glanced up to the elder boy. Sai was still looking at the foldable Goban between them with look of slight embarrassment on his face. It looked like he wanted to take the whole offer back - which meant that it probably meant lot to the other. "Well, I guess I can come," Hikaru then said. _Sai did come with me to the Haze festival so it's only fair._ "But don't expect me to understand the point in the whole thing. I'm not exactly musical, you know."

Sai seemed to pay no attention to the words as he grinned and suddenly reached to hug Hikaru over the game board. "Thank you," he said happily, squeezing the younger boy once before pulling back somewhat embarrassedly. "I, uh… I've never had a friend come watch me play in a competition," he muttered as way of explanation.

"Should be interesting then, huh?" Hikaru asked a bit awkwardly but couldn't help but grin and the other's embarrassed happiness.

x

The competition took place in a small concert hall not far from Sai's school in the next Saturday. Hikaru showed up to Sai's house early that day so that they could walk to the place together. On the way he got to see the place where the other studied, and like he had expected, it was a fancy place. Even the closed gates were fancy.

The concert hall itself was unlike any other place Hikaru had visited. It was kind of like a movie theatre but nothing like it. The fact that most people in the audience were wearing suits and such made Hikaru more than slightly self conscious about his clothing - maybe a bright yellow shirt hadn't been the best choice. It was too late now, though and thankfully the lights over the audience were soon dimmed and hopefully no one could see him anymore.

The whole competition thing started out with old guy giving a long annoying speech. Hikaru barely listened to it, though he was happy to find out that the competition had already started four hours earlier and the flute and violin divisions had already played - and that from here on there would be only cellos playing. Which meant that Hikaru didn't need to listen to whole lot of unrelated music just to hear Sai play.

The first one to play wasn't Sai but some girl. Hikaru wasn't sure if she played nicely or not since he had never paid much attention to music. The piece sounded nice enough in that fancy way all classical western music did and it got enough applause so it probably didn't suck. The second piece she played was a different one and sounded no worse than the first one but Hikaru wasn't sure. He still clapped along with everyone else with slight awkwardness and hoped that Sai would be next.

But the second or the third player wasn't Sai either. Hikaru was starting to get bored and the soft seat was starting to feel uncomfortable by the time his friend came out. Like others, Sai was carrying his cello with him and like others he bowed to the audience before sitting down to the same seat the other players had sat on. As the welcoming applause quieted down, Sai waited for a moment. Then he started to play.

It was probably just that it was Sai who was playing, but Hikaru had to admit that this performance was the most interesting one so far. Imagining Sai playing and actually seeing it, hearing it without anything disturbing it… it was different and in it's own way interesting. And Sai was definitely good.

_Heh. He looks like he's enjoying it,_ the junior high schooler chuckled to himself as Sai swayed a bit while slowly, delicately moving the bow over the strings. The elder boy's fingers were just as firm in their hold with the bow as they were with Go stones, and they moved with same poise. And the fingers dancing over the strings in the cello's neck were definitely confident. _Easy to see that he's been playing cello for a long time._

Sai finished the piece soon enough and got the same applause as everyone else, so Hikaru wasn't sure if he had done better or worse. It didn't depend on the audience, though. It was, according to Sai, the judges whom he needed to impress. Hikaru didn't know if he had or not though, the judges were too far at the front for him to see.

_They're all playing the same music. How can you tell who's better when they're all playing the same stuff?_ Hikaru wondered, leaning his cheek to his knuckles as Sai started playing the second piece. The sound of it was softly echoing in the hall and when he thought about it, it didn't sound that bad. Closing his eyes, the boy smiled. _Whatever. Sai's probably the best anyway. He's best at everything._

After finishing, Sai bowed to the audience - or to the judges, whatever - before standing up and heading away. There were two other cellist who played, but Hikaru barely listened to them, instead waiting for the competition to end and the judges to announce their winner. When it finally came to that, there was lot of useless blabber and talking before the third runner up, second runner up and finally the victor were announced.

Hikaru grinned. _Saw it coming,_ he thought victoriously as Sai stepped forward to receive his prize. _Heh, I bet this happens often. He's not even flustered,_ the boy thought amusedly as Sai bowed to the audience along with the runner ups. As they headed again to the backstage, Hikaru sat up. _I bet he wins these things all the time._

He caught Sai some twenty minutes later at the hallway near to the backroom. "Congrats," Hikaru grinned as Sai stepped out, carrying his cello. "Are we gonna stick around, do you need to talk to some people, or…?"

"Thank you. And normally it's expected, since there might be reporters and scouts in the audience who might want to talk with the competitors," Sai nodded. "However I never stick around for too long, since I don't have any interest in either. Also I excused myself earlier."

"You don't want to talk to reporters?" Hikaru asked confusedly. "Why not?"

"Because that is not why I am playing. Besides, this is a small competition and I doubt there are any in the audience, and if there is they won't want to interview the contestants," Sai shrugged. "And I'm hungry."

Hikaru chuckled. "Let's get something to eat then," he said before remembering something. "Heh, I could treat you. I owe you a meal anyway for the time when we went to see the Haze festival."

"Alright," the other nodded before frowning. "I'm not in the mood for hamburgers, though."

"Let's get something else then. Though nothing expensive, I'm not rich like some," Hikaru said and they headed towards the concert hall's exit. "By the way, how can they tell the difference between a good player and a bad player when they're both playing the same piece?" he asked. "I mean, it's the same music so doesn't it sound the same?"

Sai laughed. "Even if it is, there are many ways of playing it - each player has their own interpretation," he said and started to explain. Hikaru couldn't make much out of it, but that didn't really matter. Sai seemed happy and Hikaru was content being happy with him, even if the whole thing confused the heck out of him.

x

This story is progressing pretty slowly so it's rather long way until the slash will come to the picture. But we're getting there... eventually. And since it seems to be worrying people; yes, Hikaru and Sai will eventually start interacting with the professional Go world in certain manner. That's even longer ways away than the slash but, yeah, eventually. (And Sai's paper was sadly independent personal study, I've never actually studied sociology in school or anything like that...)

Thank you for your patience, for your comments and my apologies for possible grammar errors. 'till next time :)


	9. To Revel

**IX chapter**

**To Revel  
**

Spring passed along in it's usual pace, with Hikaru and Sai meeting each other at least every other day for a study session or a match of Go - usually the atter. Sometimes while Hikaru studied or read some book he had been assigned to read for some class, Sai would practice his cello playing and they'd spend the time in comfortable semi silence, without speaking or even interacting but nonetheless enjoying each other's company, so it wasn't all about the Go… but Go did make up most of their activities together

By the time the summer holidays began, Hikaru found that Sai had replaced Akari as his best friend. This he didn't tell to Akari, but he was certain that the girl knew. It wasn't like he didn't spend time with Akari, though. Since the girl had joined gymnastics, they had been shared a common interest and thus spend even more time together than before. And when summer holidays began, they decided to start jogging together. Hikaru had been strongly advised to start by the PE teacher and his Kendo captain, along with his martial art's senseis, and he figured that doing it with someone would make it more interesting.

Around that time, Sai had found him acting class he could attend during summer as well - two in fact. First one was actually being taught by the drama club of Sai's senior high school. They were, according to the elder teen, among the best in the country and dealt with the club costs by giving out acting lessons among other things. Mostly the clubs was for kids way younger than Hikaru, but there were three actual actors in the club as teachers so he didn't mind.

The other classes Hikaru attended to were given by some manager agency. They were a bit expensive, which hadn't made Hikaru's parent's all too happy, but Sai promised to pay half of them - on the condition that Hikaru would one day pay back. Hikaru's parents had argued against the settlement until they had realised that Sai got more pocket money than Hikaru's dad made in his job.

Sai also promised to "help" with future expenses concerning Hikaru's studies, so, since it probably wasn't the last time Sai was going to sponsor him, the younger teen had started to keep a tap. He was now more than slightly afraid that he'd spend the first ten or so years of his adulthood in debts to his best friend.

Thankfully, with school subjects out of the way, the acting lessons didn't mean that Hikaru had less time to himself - he had more than before. It was… surprisingly odd for him to find himself suddenly with nothing to do, sitting in his room expecting to have to go over his school work or rush to his martial arts lessons. The fact that he found himself annoyed and almost depressed when he had nothing to do surprised Hikaru so much that he headed to Sai and spend half an hour ranting about how Sai had turned him from his normal, pleasantly lazy person into… something else.

Sai had laughed at him and then they had played Go. After that Hikaru spend even more time at his friend's place as he found that despite Sai's rather slow lifestyle, he never got bored there. There was only one thing which bothered him about the place. Sai's air-conditioning was broken and he didn't seem to be in hurry to get it fixed.

"Saaii," Hikaru groaned one especially hot summer day when they had finished playing underneath the open living room window - which to his misery didn't offer even slightest breath of wind to cool the air. "I'm melting here."

"Would you like something cool to drink?" Sai asked calmly. He didn't seem too bothered by the heat - he was even wearing a long sleeved shirt. But then again, he was holding a fan on his hand and was almost absently using it to cool himself down, making Hikaru think that the fan was usual addition to Sai's daily life during summers.

"No. I want you to get air conditioning. And I want to jump into cool pool of water," Hikaru said and then straightened up as the idea hit him. "Hey, we should go swimming! I know this great beach not far from here - well, we have to take the bus - but it's still amazing, the sand is just perfect there!" he glanced at his watch. "We could go there today even!"

Sai stiffened slightly and glanced up to him. "I don't think that's a good idea," he said then slowly. "Well, you can go of course if you want to, but… I have fair skin. I burn easily."

"You don't burn when you're in the water," Hikaru waved his hand and sat up, stretching. "I haven't gone to swimming yet this summer anyway. It'll do me some good."

Sai shifted uncomfortably and stilled the fan with which he had been cooling himself, hiding his lips behind it. "I would… rather not, Hikaru," he then said. "I can come with you but I would rather not… swim."

Hikaru turned his eyes back to him, taking in his posture and then grinning. "Sai," he said slowly, crouching down. "You _can_ swim, right?" he asked teasingly and then the other blushed his grin widened. "You can't swim? Oh man, this is awesome. Finally a thing you _can't_ do!"

"It's not funny," Sai muttered embarrassedly, hiding his entire face behind the fan. "When… when I was younger I almost drowned in a river. I… haven't been too fond of the idea of swimming since…" he glanced up embarrassedly, like expecting Hikaru to laugh again.

"You almost drowned?" Hikaru asked instead, the smile fading from his face.

"Uhm… yes. It was after my father died, I was staying at my uncle's summer house near Kyoto. There was a river near by where we used to go to swim and the… the currents were rather strong if you got too deep," the elder teen answered abashedly. "I… haven't really tried to swim since then."

"Oh. Well then, we won't go to swim," Hikaru sighed and sank back to sit on the floor. "I'm still melting," he added then tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. "It's smouldering here."

"I'll… I'll get you some iced soda," Sai said, closing the fan and quickly getting up before heading to the kitchen.

Hikaru looked after him and sighed, tugging on his shirt again. Now he had made Sai embarrassed, he mused, feeling a bit annoyed at himself. Well, how was he supposed to know that Sai had almost drowned? It had never come up before. Shaking his head he reached for the fan Sai had left behind, opened it and tried to cool himself with it. How Sai could live without air conditioning, he had no idea.

"If you still want to go to the beach," Sai spoke carefully once he had returned with tray of orange soda. "I can go with you. I can sit at the shore."

"It's no fun if I'd have to swim alone," Hikaru answered, reaching for one of the glasses and taking a drink from it. "Ah, that's nice," he sighed, shuddering at the coolness of the drink. "Besides, I'd feel bad at you when you'd just sit there doing nothing."

The elder teen chuckled. "Do you wish to discuss the game?" he asked, pointing to the Goban between them. Taking another drink, Hikaru nodded and they begun to go over their moves and strategies and seeing where they - mostly Hikaru - could've made improvements. Still, something seemed to be bothering Sai and eventually it started to bother Hikaru. Especially since it felt like the discussion of the game was half-hearted.

"What?" he finally snapped.

The other looked momentarily startled, but didn't miss a beat. "It just… swimming…" Sai trailed away thoughtfully, taking sip of his drink. "After my incident, I never really tried to tell you the truth. My uncle did try to teach me, but… I always worked myself into a panic attack every time I got too deep into the water. Eventually he decided not to force me to try, but afterwards… when I went to school and heard people speak of their summer holidays plans, and how they would go to the beach…"

Hikaru raised his eyebrows. Sai could be wistful about other things than Go? That was… oddly comforting. Sai could seem rather… distant at times, considering how complicated his interests usually were. To hear him wonder about something so mundane and ordinary was almost pleasant - excluding the whole almost-drowning bit of course, that wasn't mundane or pleasant at all.

Though of course the fact that Sai put it into words…

The younger boy shifted, un-tucking his feet from their crossed position and stretching them out instead. "You know, you can have enjoyable beach experience without swimming. Like, I dunno… having ice cream or playing volleyball and whatever," he admitted, scratching his neck. Usually he went to swim, because he rarely went with enough people to play and you could have ice cream anywhere, but that wasn't the point. "We could go," he offered before grinning. "Seeing you having a panic attack could be amusing."

"Meanie," Sai pouted, but the shine of his eyes ruined it.

x

Sai didn't actually have a favourite time of the year, but if forced to choose, he would've preferred winter. Mostly because he wasn't exactly outgoing guy and there was odd beauty in the moments when he had nice warm cup of tea and could enjoy the sound of soothing music and the comforting click of stone against wood inside a warm room while watching how the snow fell outside the window - but that might be the romantic inside him.

Summer to him wasn't all that different from any other time of the year, except that instead of dressing to keep himself warm, he dressed to keep himself from getting sunburned. Of course that then resulted with annoying stickiness and discomfort that made his fan a constant companion, regardless of if he had air-conditioning conveniently nearby or not… so maybe he didn't exactly love and adore summer. But there was nothing exactly wrong with it. There were uncomfortable aspects in the other seasons as well, after all.

Trust it to be Hikaru to change his mind about it. While following the younger boy from the bus stop towards the beach Hikaru seemed to favour, Sai pondered about his friend. Hikaru in appearance and in personality fit summer. Hot-headed and boisterous summed it up rather nicely. And of course the endless supply of yellow shirts. In any case, Hikaru was a person to take things with brightness and noise and fire, not with cool silence associated with winter like Sai himself.

"Awesome! There aren't that many people around!" Hikaru, who had gotten the beach to his view, yelled in triumph. "I usually stay by there because it's in the shade, see? And that spot of the beach goes deeper faster so you don't need to wade through the water too much… well, of course we won't be swimming now, but anyway… there's the ice cream stall, they bring it here every summer… and there's the changing booths, they're pretty bad shape and smell weird so no one really uses them…"

Sai chuckled, walking after his excitable friend and glancing at the water. It was glimmering merrily in the sunlight, and somewhere in the distance he could see a boat. It was quite idyllic, despite the rock music coming from someone's radio near by and the couple of screaming children at the shoreline. Strange how terrified it made him feel.

"How often do you come here?" he asked as Hikaru lead him towards the shade of few wildly growing trees.

"I haven't visited this place this summer, but last summer I was here pretty much every day," Hikaru answered while dropping his bag to the grass and sitting down beside it rather carelessly. "I didn't have much to do back then. Unlike now."

"You say it like it's a bad thing," Sai answered amusedly while giving the ground a thoughtful look and then sitting down in seiza.

"It _is_ a bad thing - though now that I think about it, I didn't do anything _that_ interesting last summer. You know, in comparison to martial arts and acting lessons and all," Hikaru shrugged, scrunching his face in dismay. "Acting lessons. I'm taking _acting lessons_. Damn, I've turned into a pansy."

Sai laughed, not even bothering to give an answer to that statement. Hikaru really didn't think that anyway, that was just his way of internalising new turns. Shaking his head, Sai looked around in the beach, taking in the people, the shoreline, the ice cream stall, and the two nets which were apparently for volleyball. "It's a nice wind," he murmured, taking a deep breath of the ocean breeze.

Hikaru nodded, looking at the shoreline for a moment before suddenly jumping to his feet. "I got an idea!" he announced, grinning down to the older boy. "Hang on a moment."

Blinking with surprise, Sai watched how the younger one raced from the patch of grass to the sand and started picking something from the ground. _What's he up to now?_ He wondered with amusement while brushing his hands over the wild grass and then sitting down in more comfortable position. He followed his friend's process along the shoreline, until Hikaru looked up with a grin and ran back. Then he held his loot up for Sai to see.

"Stones?" the elder boy asked confusedly.

"You're slow on the uptake, genius girly boy!" Hikaru laughed, nudging Sai's thigh with his foot. "Come on. I'll show you!"

Sai followed him to the sand and then, as Hikaru drew a nine by nine grid to the sand with a stick, he realised what he was thinking. He clapped his hands in excitement and then examined the stones Hikaru had picked up. They were either grey or greyish white, but the difference in colours was clear enough. "This is a brilliant idea, Hikaru!"

"Trust you to appreciate anything that has something to do with Go," Hikaru grinned while dropping the stick beside the grid. Then he started toeing his shoes off, kicking them to the side as well. "I'm black," he said before Sai could offer and quickly they separated the darker and the lighter stones.

It was probably the excitement of a new thing that made the game very short - and rather brutal on Sai's part. Thankfully Hikaru seemed to be in too good spirits to mind, and after being slaughtered on the sand-board, he quickly redrew it and they played another game without stopping to discuss the first one.

"It's confusing playing smaller board like this," Hikaru murmured in middle of their second game. "I'm used to bigger grid."

"We've only played with a full board before - and I guess you were taught with one as well," Sai answered. It took him some time get adjusted to it as well, he was used to having more space to make his hands. Nine by nine grid felt… crowded in comparison to the Normal nineteen by nineteen. "We could make a smaller board if you want to, maybe draw one... or only use one corner of the full Goban."

"Nah. It's just it feels small and awkward," Hikaru shrugged before taking one of his dark-grey stones and reaching it to place it in the board. "Feels like there's nothing but corner on a board like this."

"Not exactly a bad thing," Sai chuckled, dropping down his stone and claiming half of Hikaru's territory with it. "You come up with different strategies than on a full board, your moves need to be smaller, more precise…"

"Well, it makes games shorter if nothing else," the younger boy sighed and stretched. "Ice-cream," he said resolutely, glancing up to the sun which was now almost directly above them. "We can discuss it once we've gotten some."

Sai nodded with agreement and after getting Hikaru's bag they headed to the stall, from where Hikaru bought the most extravagant ice cream in the display while Sai settled for something simpler. "You want to try that?" Hikaru asked while they headed back towards their sand-board. He was looking towards the volleyball net. "I have inflatable ball with me. It won't be the same playing it by ourselves than it would be if we had two more people, but it could still be fun. And I could finally kick your ass at _something_."

Sai smothered a grimace. "That doesn't make me likely to want to try it, Hikaru," he answered. "But maybe later. I wish to discuss the game first…" he trailed away, noticing that there were people in their so called spot, looking down to their game. He sighed. Well, he had it memorised, he could re-create it if it was ruined.

Hikaru wasn't as subtle about his dismay. "Oi, you two! Mess up our game and I'll kick your collective asses!"

"Hikaru!" Sai snapped at him, trying to push aside the thought of whether or not Hikaru was actually physically capable of it. Logic said no; Hikaru was short and young after all… but in reality the boy had been studying martial arts and going through rather harsh physical training for months now. Sai had been keeping up with it, but it was startling to realise that he wasn't sure what kind of physical violence his friend was capable of.

"You two played this?" one of the two boys eying the sand grid asked. "It's not a bad game. Would you mind recreating it for us?"

The request seemed to surprise Hikaru off his high horse, making him stop slightly and then glance at Sai. Then he frowned. "Why should we?" he asked defensively while Sai sighed and glanced at the sky for divine help with his friend's manners. Despite months, he had certainly had no effect on them.

The other boy frowned. "Because I want to use it as distraction and steal all your pocket money and ice cream and probably your shoes too in the mean while - _why do you think_? I wanna know how it went," the other boy frowned, gaining a look of exasperation from his friend. "Come on, it's not that big of a deal."

"Oi, you bast-" Hikaru started but stopped when Sai nudged his side.

"You two play Go?" he asked instead, trying to stop the fight before it started.

"Yes," the loud boy's more sombre friend answered quickly, smiling in a slightly relieved manner. "We play it pretty often and study it - we're insei," he said.

Sai blinked slightly at it, trying to ignore the feel of cool weight settling over his stomach. He covered his lapse of manners with a smile. "Oh, you're trying to become pro players then?" he asked, coughing when Hikaru gave him an odd look. "It's the time for pro-exam around now, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah," the loud boy answered with a harrumph and folded his arms. "The preliminaries were two weeks ago, the main exam will begin next month."

"His third time trying," the other boy said in stage whisper, making the loud boy whack his arm in retaliation. "Ouch, Waya!"

"Shut up," the boy, apparently named Waya, snarled, before pointing his finger at Hikaru. "Recreate the game or I'll throw sand into your ice-cream!"

"Ex_cuse_ me but how old _are_ you?" Hikaru snapped back, quickly covering his ice-cream with his hand. "I'll kick your ass!"

"Yeah? Bring it on, shorty!"

"Okay, okay, enough," Sai laughed, taking Hikaru's arm to make sure he wouldn't do anything hasty. "It's not a big deal and we were about to discuss the game anyway. Come on, Hikaru. Discussion with more people can be fun," he glanced at the two insei. "My name is Sai and this loudmouth here is Hikaru."

"Who's a loudmouth, _girly boy_?"

"My name's Fukui, but everyone calls me Fuku, and this other loudmouth is Waya," the quieter insei with happy smile answered, ignoring the fact that the other promptly grasped him into a headlock. "It's nice to meet you!" he ground out.

"Likewise," Sai answered, chuckling at the two of them while Hikaru took a sulky bite of his ice-cream. The teen nudged his friend's side. "Come on Hikaru. Let's recreate the game."

They did, and after a brief tussle, the others leaned forward to watch. The game had been pretty short in comparison to their usual games - which were often short anyway, as Hikaru couldn't yet keep up with Sai's skill and often got beaten early on.

"You suck," was Waya's immediate statement after they had recreated half of the game. He was staring at Hikaru. "How you managed to hold out this long is a miracle. I bet Sai played Shidougo."

"Give me a break, you jerk. I'm still a beginner," Hikaru snapped back before glaring at Sai like it was his fault. "And he plays me Shidougo half of the time. It's irritating."

"Just a way to help you improve, Hikaru, I promise," Sai chuckled, leaning his chin to his palm while they examined the sand board. "And you have, since the time we started playing." It was true. Hikaru improved in leaps with everything he paid enough mind to. Schoolwork, physical training, gymnastics, martial arts… and Go. Underneath Hikaru's slacker personality and appearance, there was a little polymath looming. One just needed to poke it a few times to get it come out.

"Beginner? Really? How long have you been playing?" Fukui asked, leaning little more forward to see the whole sand-Goban.

"Let's see… I started little before going to junior high, so… four months?"

"Four and half," Sai nodded. "If you count the month you were learning basics."

"I count it. Four and half it is," Hikaru nodded before making a face. "Almost five months of being a pansy… man…"

"Are you saying Go's a pansy game? Idiot!" Waya snapped, making a move to kick Hikaru. He was stopped by Fukui who wrapped his hands around the other's flailing leg, sending them both to the sand. "Fuku, you - I'll kick your ass!"

"Is he always so temperamental?" Sai asked with a chuckle. He was adjusted to it with Hikaru, but it was amusing to see someone act so much like his friend.

"He's been like this ever since Toya Akira beat him in the preliminaries," Fukui laughed, almost as if Waya wasn't trying to kick him. "Sometimes he gets hot headed when he loses badly."

Toya Akira? Sai frowned, trying to remember where he had heard that before.

"Oh, Toya's taking the exam?" Hikaru asked. "Cool. Well, he said he was, but… How did he do?"

"Hikaru?" Sai asked confusedly, but then he remembered. Toya Akira, the son of the current Meijin and author of the Go book which was now gathering dust somewhere in Sai's bookcase. He hadn't paid much attention to the book as he didn't care the modern Go anymore… he had almost forgotten the whole thing. "Hikaru, you know Toya personally?" he asked curiously.

"I didn't tell you? I learned the basics in the Go salon his family owns - Toya taught me, actually," the other answered.

"Really?" Sai asked and before he could help himself added, "What was he like?"

"Creepy girly weirdo," Hikaru answered solemnly, glancing at him. "Kinda like you but with less hair."

"You got taught basics by Toya Akira? Lucky!" Fukui said with amazement. "I was taught my grandma. She was a poor teacher."

"I know the feeling. My grandpa's a total Go maniac, but he always just ends up hitting me every time we try to play," Hikaru made a face. "Still bought me a new Goban though."

While Hikaru and Fukui exchanged experiences about eccentric grandparents over Waya, who mysteriously enough had ended up pinned to the sand by Fukui, Sai chewed his bottom lip. Hikaru had been taught basics by someone good enough to be a pro? Well that was the apparent belief about Toya Akira, but still… it explained few things. Hikaru had learned basics surprisingly well - and fast, to the point where he knew his way around the board by the time their first game had been played.

_Toya Akira must be a good teacher. Patient too, no doubt,_ Sai mused. _To have alone taught basics so well to Hikaru…_

Though it could be partially Hikaru's own doing. Like going from eight percent to sixty two in exams with only one tutoring session in between. Hikaru could learn fast after all - and he had said that he had been reading Go books and practicing Go by himself…

Sai nodded to himself, deciding that it was mostly Hikaru's own doing. One could only teach skills to someone willing and capable to learn them after all. With a shake of his head, he pushed the idea of Toya Akira from his head to find that Waya and Fukui were more or less wrestling on top of now thoroughly ruined sand-Goban and Hikaru was laughing at the two of them loudly.

Later Waya and Fukui challenged Hikaru and Sai in game of volley ball. The game eventually ended up in tie because despite the fact that both Waya and Hikaru were athletic, both Sai and Fukui weren't, making the teams evenly balanced. Mostly the game consisted of Waya and Hikaru trying to belt each other with the ball over the net, much to Sai's and Fukui's amusement.

Eventually the two insei headed off - they Fukui had a curfew and Waya had a teaching session with his Go master. Hikaru and Sai played one more game of sand-Go, before cleaning their hands and feet in the ocean. When Sai had lost his shoes, he wasn't sure, but found that sand under his toenails was an experience he wasn't sure if he wanted to repeat

"It was fun, wasn't it?" Hikaru asked while toeing his shoes back on.

"Even though you didn't get to swim?" Sai asked.

"Yeah. There's more to having properly fun at a beach than the failed attempts of drowning," Hikaru grinned. While Sai followed him towards the bus stop, he decided that Hikaru was probably the only person who could make a joke about childhood trauma without insulting people.

x

Just like walking is strictly controlled stumbling and falling, swimming is failed attempt of drowning.

_Revel _because unrestrained merrymaking fits Sai _so well_. Hello, you all, long time no see? Gone around merrymaking with other fandoms for a while, but Hikaru no Go comes back every time I lose it. Like a boomerang. And I have unrestrained desire to finish this story. It will take some thirty chapters to do it - rough estimate, might be more or less - but anyway I wanna get there. I have wonderful dramatic scenes to write! Oh, and slash too. Can't forget the slash.

My most unrestrained apologies for possible grammar errors. Wrote this on sugar high and despite my attempts of revelling in typo catching, I doubt I caught them all. If you see some, point them out to me and I'll fix them with unrestrained merriness. Unless you're a meanie about them, then I will fix them with restrained merriness.

edit: Fixed the haunting daddy, no ghost stories for Sai D:


	10. To Act

**X chapter**

**To act  
**

Hikaru smothered the urge to groan while leaning his head back against the seat. Around him the train shuddered and jerked and people talked lightly amongst themselves, blissfully oblivious of Hikaru's troubles.

_I am going to murder Sai for suggesting his school's club to me,_ the teen thought. He had learned a lot there, mostly stuff he wasn't particularly interested in, but lot none the less. He now knew how to read a screen play, how to move around the stage, somewhat, and had learned lot of little tricks with acting. He had also learned to hate the girl who was the president of the acting club - she had taken a personal interest in Hikaru since he was the oldest of the students and most determined about acting unlike the other kids who were probably there only so that their parents would have few free hours to themselves.

Together the club president and the teachers did their best to make Hikaru do the most embarrassing things. So far Hikaru had acted the parts of a girl three times, the part of a three year old kid once, the part of crotchety grandfather two times and in a weird fantasy script he had been graciously given the part of a tooth fairy. He could've sworn the club president had something against him, but the teachers who came by every now and then to give lessons and tips made it all worth it - they seemed to think that it did good for Hikaru to play strange roles.

"You're still acting like it's a game or like you're a robot, just spewing out prewritten line" they kept saying him. "But the weirder the role is, the more you get into it, so…"

Of course he got more into it. He had to show that annoying president up, after all. He wasn't entirely sure what good the lessons were, though. He got more facts in the lessons at the manager agency - though they didn't actually act that much there, they knew more about the business. The teacher there was even helping Hikaru along, telling him what he should concentrate to in order to become a successful stuntman, and where he should go and what he should do once he would actually want to start working.

"You could probably start pretty soon, considering the lessons you've been taking. There aren't too many child stuntmen," the teacher had said. "But I would suggest you to wait at least year or two."

Which was just fine, as Hikaru had no intention of starting to work yet. School, lessons, Sai, Go _and_ working? He was already stretched thin enough as it is. And of course, his parents would never let him, they weren't exactly happy about his choice as it was and were constantly trying to suggest him more _stable_ and _secure_ professions. Like those of bankers and store clerks.

Sighing, Hikaru straightened his neck as the angle started to give him a head ache. He lowered his eyes to the papers he was holding, the _home work_ he had gotten from the drama club. Because his acting was apparently no more than superficial and stiff at best, the teacher had given him a special assignment. He was to create a character as little like himself as possible which he would act in the new play. The play was about country two girls lost in an urban city who ran into suspicious sort of people who tried to tempt them into bad habits. For a club mostly filled with eight to twelve year olds it was a pretty dark play, but the script was pretty fun. Except that Hikaru had to create out of nowhere an extra character, and be one of the suspicious temptation people.

He sighed again. He would've been right at home playing a delinquent but he had been told that it was exactly what he couldn't play. _How do you act the role of a bad guy without being a delinquent?_ He wondered, looking down to the script. Since it was a kid's play most of the bad guys were a kind of hilarious, like the one legged hobo who talked like a pirate, and a gangster who tries to get the girls to play poker with him for marshmallows. And he had two days to invent a character that would fit the cast and yet be nothing like Hikaru himself was?

_I'm really going to kill Sai one day,_ Hikaru sighed and scratched his cheek in concentration as the train stopped at a station for a moment. Sai was the one who had gotten him into bad habits. _And with my luck anything I can think off will be over ruled and then I will have to act as a woman again or something. I'll murder that club president along with Sai, I swear I will…_

He was so deep in the circling thoughts that he didn't even notice that he had company before the person cleared their throat and said, "Shindo?" cautiously.

Hikaru glanced up, his eyebrows rising as he saw Toya Akira standing in front of him, taking support of a metal hand rail as the train trudged along. "Toya," Hikaru said with surprise. "Hey, sorry, didn't notice you. What's up? You heading home or something?"

"I'm heading to the Go-salon for few games before I head home. And hello to you too, Shindo," the Go player answered, glancing down to the papers. "Home work?"

"Yeah, something like that," Hikaru answered and quickly folded the papers before pushing them to his bag. Toya was a girly weirdo, sure, but Hikaru still didn't want him to see what sort of lessons he was taking - that would've been just embarrassing. "I heard you're in the pro-exam now," he said to direct the attention away from the papers.

"Yes. The actual exam just begun," Toya answered and sat down across him.

Hikaru nodded. He hadn't exactly been paying much attention to it, but he had noted the date from the last _Go Weekly _magazine. "How's it going?"

"Well enough, I suppose," the other nodded with a sort of matter of fact modesty that made Hikaru grin and wonder if the other had yet had a single defeat. Probably not. "You haven't visited the salon at all," Toya then said with hint of betrayal in his tone.

"I told you I wouldn't," Hikaru shrugged, though he couldn't help but frown. Toya made it sound like he had been supposed to go. "I got my friend to teach me now, and I've been pretty busy - and I bet you are too, with the whole exam thing going on.

"… maybe," Toya agreed. "But teaching you was relaxing. And I would like to know if my tutelage served any purpose at all, or if you've forgotten all I taught you."

Hikaru narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out if the other was daring him or not. "I haven't forgotten," he snorted. "I play every day."

"Prove it," the other demanded. "Come with me to the salon. We'll have a match and I'll be able to tell if you really have been playing."

Hikaru folded his arms, eying the other with a frown. "What's with you?" he then asked. "You weren't this much of a bastard the last time. Creepy as hell, sure, but it was the sort of somewhat nice creepiness," he said, and snorted at the other's look of outrage. "So, what's crawled up your ass and died?"

"Shindo!" Toya gasped in horror. "Your language!"

"It is very fine, thank you for noticing," Hikaru said, satisfied have shocked the other out of the weird mood. "So, what's up? What's with the play or die attitude?"

Toya frowned for a moment before sighing and looking away. "I guess I have found the pro exam somewhat disappointing," he admitted at last. "And I regret not taking it sooner, when my skills were lesser. It would've been challenge then," he added.

Hikaru stared at him for a moment and then slowly shook his head with mild disbelief. _Go players are such jerks,_ he mused. Sai could be too, with the whole I'm-better-than-you-and-will-be-for-years-to-come thing, except he at least was somewhat nice about it and never really said it out loud. Still, it was all there in the attitude, there was a sort of forced patience with Sai, like he was anxiously waiting for Hikaru to become good enough to actually be a challenge.

"Why didn't you then?" he asked. "Why didn't you take the exam earlier, I mean?"

Toya frowned. "I suppose I was waiting to see if there was anyone of my age good enough to be my rival," he then said. "Someone to make taking the exam worth it. Now I am taking it just because I can, and because it will let me eventually play tougher opponents."

"So, basically you are bitching because you're too good? God, you're a jerk," Hikaru huffed, snorting at the other's insulted look. "Seriously. You are."

"Ah…" the Go player said, looking like he didn't know how to answer that. Then, after a moment, he flushed red and looked away. "I really did sound like I'm horribly arrogant, didn't I?" he asked embarrassedly.

"Yeah, well, duh," the other laughed. "You need to play your dad or that creepy Ogata-guy a few rounds and get your ass handed to you, that ought to cure you," he said with a wave of his hand, and Toya actually chuckled in agreement at that. "Besides, you can never be too good," Hikaru added. "Go is a lifelong study. You'll never know it all."

Toya gave him a surprised look at that, and Hikaru shrugged. "It's something my friend said once," he said and glanced up. "My stop is coming up," he said, though it wasn't really as much his stop as it was Sai's - he wanted to go to Sai's place to complain about the drama club to him, as he was the one who had recommended it. "My advice to you, Toya, is that you get your head off your ass. Think about how it feels to them, being beaten by you."

"I didn't ask for an advice," Toya said, frowning.

"What that attitude you were begging for it," Hikaru snorted and hoisted his backpack to his shoulder. "See ya, Toya."

"Wait, Shindo. Would you come to the salon some time again?" Toya asked, standing up. "I'd really like to see your Go."

Hikaru halted while heading for the doors and considered it. "Yeah, maybe, if I have the time," he said and turned to leave. "If you play someone named Waya or Fukui, tell them I said hi, okay?" he added and stepped out of the train before Toya could answer.

He glanced over his shoulder at the train as it started to move. _Go players are so weird,_ he mused, seeing Toya staring back at him through the window. "Weirdoes the whole punch," he muttered out loud. Fukui was probably the only semi-normal one he had ever met. Waya and Toya on other hand…

Shaking his head, Hikaru turned his eyes away from the train and started making his way out of the platform. The idea of Waya and Toya having a conversation made him grin for some reason. With Waya being the way he was, they'd probably end in a fist fight. Or would if Toya wasn't such a prissy boy.

Once out of the platform, he shouldered his backpack a little better and then started jogging towards Sai's apartment, not wanting to spend twenty minutes walking like it usually took. As he ran, he returned his thoughts back to the drama club assignment and started once again swearing that he would butcher Sai for it. _Well, maybe not butcher, but I will tug his hair. A lot._

Soon he was at the apartment and jogging up the stairs to right door, where he rang the door bell while stretching his legs absently to make sure they would get stiff. He expected Sai to open the door as promptly as he usually did, but this time it took a few moments longer - and it wasn't Sai who opened it.

It was a man with short black hair, wearing a dark grey suit. Hikaru blinked with surprise and released his leg from the stretch a little awkwardly. "Um, hi? Is Sai here?"

"He is out shopping with his aunt. Are you a friend of his?" the man asked curiously, taking him in a frowning a little at Hikaru's clothes. Apparently sneakers, shorts, sleeveless shirt and partially bleached hair weren't the man's idea of style. His loss.

"Yeah, sort of?" Hikaru answered and then narrowed his eyes. "Wait, are you his uncle?" he asked. The man had similar eyes as Sai did, though the glasses made it a bit hard to see.

The man nodded and smiled a little awkwardly. "Fujiwara Shin. And you are?"

"Shindo Hikaru," Hikaru answered with an awkward bow. "I'm Sai's best friend, uh, sort of. He used to be my tutor."

"I see," the man mused before smiling and stepping out of the way. "Well, come in. Sai and Kotone should be back soon anyway."

"Oh… okay then," Hikaru said and stepped forward, toeing his sneakers off and leaving his backpack next to his shoes. "I probably should've called him before hand or something, sorry about that," Hikaru said as the man continued to look at him expectantly. "I usually just show up."

"I see," the man said again and then led Hikaru to the kitchen. "So, how long have you known our Sai?"

"Um… I think it'll be about year this fall," Hikaru answered while awkwardly taking a seat in the kitchen table while the man moved to make them some tea. "I did badly in a test so my mom hired Sai to be my tutor. It kind of spiralled from there."

"Sai tutored for money? That's strange; I thought we gave him enough allowance for him to manage. Not to mention the prizes he's won from his competitions," Fujiwara-san murmured, turning to look at one of the glass cabinets in the kitchen, which had few of Sai's trophies on display.

"I sort of gathered it wasn't because of money, because he said he didn't actually need it - he was bored and thought it might be interesting or something," Hikaru answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"So, he isn't having money problems? That's good to hear. That boy is so self sufficient at times that I get the feeling he wouldn't tell us even if he did need help," the man said, relaxing a little and then carrying the tea pot to the table. "So, you're good friends with him? Do you go to the same school or…?"

"What? No _way_! I mean, I just got into junior high, for cries sake. And I'm not smart enough to go to the school Sai goes, no way in hell," Hikaru snorted. "I'm not a genius or anything - what sort of genius would need a tutor anyway? Nah. I go to Haze junior high - it's a normal public school, nothing special about it."

"Oh," Fujiwara-san blinked, looking like he didn't quite know what to make of his answer. Hikaru smothered the grin. The man was older and didn't look much like Sai, aside from the eyes, but right then he could see the similarity. Sai did the exact same thing when Hikaru said something unexpected, the same slow, confused blink.

The man coughed awkwardly and poured the tea. "If you don't mind me asking, how do you go from tutor and student to friends?" Fujiwara-san asked while pushing Hikaru's cup across the table. "I don't mean to sound insulting, but you and our Sai aren't quite… alike."

"No we're not, thank gods," Hikaru snorted. "I dunno. It kinda happened by itself. Sai is pretty cool for such a girly boy and once you get him he's pretty fun to be around, you know? And insanely smart too which is kinda terrifying at times. I think it's sort of because he would buy me ramen and stuff every time I did well, so it wasn't just that he'd come, teach me, and then leave. It was, I don't know, more comfortable? Something like that."

"I suppose," Fujiwara-san answered, blinking again like he couldn't keep up. "So you bonded over… food?"

"Pfft. Bonded," Hikaru muttered, rolling his eyes. _Adults_. "Not really, but kinda. It's more like, Sai's Sai and I'm me, and we just… don't match," he said, trying to find the right way to put it. "I mean, Sai's all prissy and smart and all proper and polite and stuff. And I'm just _not_. And normally we wouldn't have anything to do with each other, right? But Sai's this pushy guy and telling me to do this and that and stuff and I'm apparently stubborn and I have to win all the time, so it kinda works."

The man stared at him silently for a moment and then laughed somewhat helplessly. "I have to admit, I have no idea what you're talking about," he said.

"Me neither," Hikaru admitted with a grin and took a gulp of his tea. "So, are Sai and his Aunt buying something specific?" he asked curiously. "Like furniture or something?" Sai could definitely use a couch or something.

"Clothing, most likely," Fujiwara-san answered with a smile. "Kotone is under the impression that Sai can't buy his own clothes, so she insists to make sure his wardrobe is full."

"Sounds like my mom," Hikaru murmured, and hoped that Sai's aunt had better taste in clothes than his mom did. Then he frowned and wondered if that was there Sai's girly style came from - no self respecting boy would buy the stuff Sai constantly wore. Well… except maybe for Toya Akira - though with his hairstyle it was hard to say if he did respect himself at all. Hikaru wouldn't, if he had that hair.

"Hmm… Sai is like son to us, so I suppose it makes sense," Fujiwara-san mused thoughtfully and took another sip of his tea, before asking, "So, how do you think my nephew is doing?"

"Doing?" Hikaru blinked, tilting his head to the side. "Like what, with school work?"

"Well, I know how he is doing with school work - we get reports from his school. I meant… generally," the man said, making a circling motion with his hand. "Sai has never had friends before, and I've been worrying that he might be lonely, so it relieves me to see you. But still I don't know… is my nephew happy?"

Hikaru scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Wow, what a question. "I guess so?" he answered. "I mean, it's _Sai_, you know? He's smiling all the time - hell, he'd be smiling with a broken arm, probably. Well, I suppose he's been a bit more cheerful nowadays than he was when we met, or something, but… I've never really seen him sad or unhappy, in any case."

"That is good to hear," the man mused and glanced up as they heard sounds coming from the hallway. "Seems like they're back."

Hikaru sipped his tea and listened as the door was opened. He could hear Sai's voice, saying something about some coat or something like that, that he didn't like the colour. For a moment the boy wondered if he ought to get up and say hello to his friend, but he figured that Sai probably had his hands full and would notice him eventually.

"Hmm… I just realised I missed my chance to ask some embarrassing stories from when Sai was little," Hikaru murmured to himself. "Pity."

Fujiwara-san smiled faintly before calling to the hall, "Sai, your friend is here." Then the man glanced at Hikaru. "And what would've you done with those embarrassing stories?"

"Probably used them to break his concentration mid-game," Hikaru answered thoughtfully. _It would be so nice to beat Sai, just once. Even if using dirty tricks, it would be so nice…_ he sighed again. _I should've thought it before._

"Mid-game?" Fujiwara-san asked, just as Sai appeared to the kitchen door, looking surprised.

"Hikaru?" the long haired youth asked while balancing armful of groceries. "What - when - you should've told me you were coming."

"When have I ever done that?" Hikaru asked, while waving his hand lazily in greeting. "I can go if I'm a bother, though."

"No, of course you're not, but -"

"Ooh, you have a guest here, Sai?" a female voice asked, and a woman with long curly hair pushed past surprised Sai, almost making the teen drop the groceries. "Ooh! You do! Oh, and that hair! You must be Hikaru-kun!" the woman said excitedly and while Hikaru was still wondering that the woman must be the reason for Sai's long hair, she was already stepping forward to take closer look at him. "Sai has told me so much about you! It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Fujiwara Kotone, Sai's aunt!"

_And very excitable,_ Hikaru noted faintly. "Shindo Hikaru," he answered, waving his hand again. Then he glanced at Sai who had a slightly suffered look about him. "Sai has told you about me? Like what?"

"He's told me about your hobbies and how smart you are, and how you're aspiring to be a stuntman - a daring career choice, that one, but if one feels that's what one got to do, then that's what one got to do!" the woman said while pushing to sit beside Hikaru whilst Sai sighed and started putting the groceries away. "And if you're anything like Sai then it's alright, of course. He decided he'd be a cellist before he even really knew what it was to be a cellist!"

"I did know," Sai said a little defensively while his uncle smothered a chuckle. "My father made musical instruments for living, how could've I not known what they were for?"

"Oh, semantics," the woman said, waving her hand dismissively while Hikaru looked between her and Sai with curiosity. Then she turned to him again, smiling. "So, did you come to see Sai about school work? He told me he still sometimes helps you with it."

"School's not on yet," Hikaru answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I came to complain about my acting classes."

"You take acting classes, Shindo-kun?" Fujiwara Shin asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah. I just came over from the one I take at Sai's school, the sessions are held by the drama club," Hikaru answered, and soon found himself telling everything about them, Sai's aunt pressing for all plans he had, excitedly wanting to know everything. At first Hikaru thought it was just because she seemed to be the sort of person, easily excitable or something, but it were the questions by Sai's uncle that made him pause a little. What sort of classes he took, what had he learned, what he had planned, did he have a proper schedule, how was he intending to work his finances… towards the end the questions got really weird.

"Hmm," the man nodded with satisfaction once Hikaru, feeling oddly tired like he had just spent the last hour or so running, was done. "You seem to have a good grasp of what you want."

"Sort of," Hikaru answered, glancing at Sai who was now leaning to the kitchen counter, sipping tea. "It's mostly his fault," he said, pointing at Sai who blinked innocently back. "He's a nag!"

"I shall take that as a compliment," Sai smiled, nodding his head happily.

"Well! This is all very interesting, but talking is making me hungry!" Fujiwara Kotone eventually said, clasping her hands together like exited teenage girl or something. "How about you boys clear out of the kitchen for a moment and I'll make us something to eat?"

"I can help you -" Sai started to of course say, but was quickly over-ruled.

"No, no, go entertain your friend. Shoo, shoo," Kotone said and more or less shooed Hikaru and the two Fujiwara males out of the kitchen. Hikaru, feeling oddly like someone had carried him out by the ruff of his neck like he was a stray cat or something, could hear the woman humming away in the kitchen even before the door banged shut after them.

"Interesting aunt you have," Hikaru murmured, glancing at the closed door.

"She is quite, isn't she?" Sai asked, smiling while his uncle chuckled softly. Then the long haired teen turned to look at the many shopping bags sitting by the front door - most of them looked like the sort of bags you got from special brand stores. "Oh, I completely forgot about those. I should put them away," he murmured, rushing to gather them up.

"I'll give you a hand," Hikaru offered and with armload of the bags he followed Sai to the older teen's bedroom, while Sai's uncle followed them curiously. The next ten minutes or so were spent sorting through the stuff, with trying his new coat and shoes on in front of full body mirror. Hikaru didn't even bother smothering his grin at the sight of him primping. Sai looked happy, and rather ridiculous. It was oddly pleasant, if not amusing, sight.

"What are you laughing at, Hikaru?" Sai asked sharply while undressing his coat.

"At this weird girly boy wearing women's clothing," the younger teen answered with an innocent smile and widened his eyes when Sai narrowed his own. "I think you might've missed him though."

"Funny," Sai sniffed at him before gently smoothing all wrinkles out of his coat and very carefully hanging it to his closet.

Hikaru grinned again. How like Sai to have even his closet in perfectly neat order. "Has he always been like this?" he asked from Sai's uncle while Sai started comparing two shirts which were slightly different shade of blue.

"I'm afraid so," Fujiwara-san chuckled, his arms folded casually as he leaned to the door frame. "He has gotten influenced by my wife rather strongly." The man hesitated for a moment before bowing closer and stage whispering, "I'm expecting them to start shopping for make up any day now."

"Uncle!" Sai gasped while Hikaru roared with laughter. "Hikaru! How rude!" the long haired teen sniffed and threw a price tag at them. "If you can't behave, get out of my bedroom!"

"But it's so much fun watching you primp yourself," Hikaru answered, grinning ear to ear. "And really, you're only missing lipstick and you'd be a total girl, girly boy."

"Hmph!" Sai harrumphed, turning to look away with dramatic swish of his long hair. Then, after giving a moment of consideration to his mirror reflection, he tilted his head to the side. "Do you think lipstick would suit me?"

Hikaru froze for a moment, trying to imagine it and somehow ending up with a terrible need to do some stretches. Maybe push-ups too. And run some ten miles afterwards, maybe. Something _manly_ anyhow. He coughed, blinking and glanced at Sai's uncle, who seemed similarly startled by the question. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna wait for you in the living room," Hikaru said, glancing at Sai looked back at him through the mirror.

"Me as well," Fujiwara Shin agreed with a nod. "I'll see if Kotone is getting anywhere with the food," he added, turning to leave.

Sai smiled slyly at Hikaru through the mirror. "You poor, poor people," he said, and slyness turned into outright smugness. "Defeated by lipstick."

"Creepy girly weirdo," Hikaru answered back and made a hasty retreat to the living room when Sai blew him a teasing kiss through the mirror. Behind him, Sai laughed.

"Well, that was a pleasant sound," Sai's uncle said as he returned to the kitchen. He looked towards the bedroom where Sai's chuckles were turning into contented humming.

"If you say so," Hikaru answered. Shaking his head, he sat down to his usual place by the Goban. "I like Sai, I really do, but sometimes he's just weird," he muttered, running his hand through his hair while eying the board. It was perfectly clean and clear, so he just had to open the bowl next to him and place a black stone down to the grid. Better. "Really, really weird."

"Nothing wrong with weird," Fujiwara Shin chuckled but he was looking Hikaru pretty closely. "You play Go, Shindo-kun?"

"Sai's teaching me. We usually play every time I come here - and every time he comes over to my place," Hikaru answered and glanced up. "Do you play, Fujiwara-san?"

"No, not really," the man answered, looking at him still with oddly thoughtful look about his eyes. "I didn't think Sai played anymore, though."

"I sort of badgered him into it. We've been playing since spring," Hikaru answered, reaching to take the other bowl and start to recreate one of his and Sai's games to pass the time. "I'm not as good as he is yet, but I'm getting there."

"Hmm…" the man hummed, and then sat down across him. "You seem to have some good influence on my nephew, Shindo-kun."

Scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, Hikaru grinned. "He's having better one on me," he muttered, admitting what he usually preferred to think as a nuisance. But despite all his complaining, his marks were higher than he had ever suspected they'd be, he was in great shape and getting better every day, he was _diligent_ to the point of getting bored when he had nothing to do, for cry's sake. "It's kind of annoying really."

The man smiled with satisfaction and nodded in that knowing way adults sometimes did and said nothing.

Sai joined them little later and while waiting for his aunt to finish the food, he and Hikaru played a round of Go while his uncle tried - and failed - to keep up. Then the four of them enjoyed a dinner with Sai's aunt telling Hikaru the embarrassing stories he had failed to ask from his uncle, much to Sai's horror. It ended up being pretty cool, as sudden family dinners went, and Hikaru was happy not to feel like outsider at all, like he usually did when ever he ate at a friend's place.

"They're pretty cool, your aunt and uncle," Hikaru mused after the couple had left after somewhat overzealous goodbyes from Fujiwara Kotone who had insisted on hugging and kissing Hikaru too. Apparently Sai's uncle had a business meeting which he couldn't miss, which is why they couldn't stay longer. Hikaru hadn't really expected to rich people to be so casual, but they really had been pretty cool.

"Yes, they are. They've taken good care of me," Sai nodded happy in agreement

"I totally see where you get it from, too," Hikaru nodded, stroking his chin with mockingly serious look. Sai's aunt had only little shorter hair than Sai did, and she acted like Sai did when ever he was excited - except she seemed to be like it all the time. And Sai's uncle was probably where the stiff polite speech thing came from - the man had been pretty casual but every now and then he had spoken just like Sai did.

"Yes, yes, mystery solved," Sai rolled his eyes with a smile. "I grew at my aunt's hems and ended up effeminate. Your powers of deduction are astonishing. Now we just need to figure out where you got your bad manners from."

"I was born with them," Hikaru answered solemnly.

Sai considered it for a moment and then sighed. "That would explain it, wouldn't it?" he murmured before looking at the shorter boy. "You really did like them, though? My aunt and uncle."

"Yeah. Like said, they're cool," Hikaru shrugged, and turned away and to the Goban. "Let's play another game, Sai."

"Yes," the other answered happily and rest of Hikaru's visit was spent playing.

Only later he remembered that he had completely forgotten to complain about the acting classes.

x

Return of the boomerang fandom after, uh, way over half a year? And with such a filler chapter, too. Well, at least it keeps coming back, at least I still get sparks of inspiration, even if they seem come so rarely. Still, I am eagerly trying to write this. Not giving up. Ever. Long live the boomerang.

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such, and my thanks for the comments and such.


	11. To Share

**XI chapter**

**To Share  
**

"How did it go, then? The play?" Akari asked, jogging at Hikaru's side as they made their way through the three-mile route they took every other day. "You had a part in one they played in that school where you take the acting classes, right? You should've told me about it, I would've loved to see you act!"

"That's exactly why I didn't let you know," Hikaru huffed, frowning. It had been hard enough to keep his mother from attending - and damn Sai had showed up despite all his objections. He grumbled with annoyance. Sai would never let him live it down, no doubt. "It went pretty good, sure, but it was so embarrassing," he muttered, wishing stuntman work didn't require so much acting. Once he had gotten the hang of it wasn't that hard - he wasn't good, sure, but he could do it. But it wasn't really for him. At least those classes were now done and over with.

"Aww, but I bet it would've been so much fun to see you on the stage," Akari grinned, tugging her slipping bandana down for a moment and then pulling it up again into better position. She grinned. "Shindo Hikaru in a _stage_ play. That was something I didn't imagine even in my nightmares!"

"Laugh it up, why don't you," Hikaru said, sticking his tongue out at her. "People thought I was pretty good, actually," he added a bit defensively - and then immediately regretted it when she just laughed at him. Harrumphing at her amusement, he looked ahead and brushed his hand over his face to push his hair back. It was about time he got a haircut. "I bet you would enjoy it though, acting. It seems like something you'd do." Something a _girl_ would like to do.

"Nah, not really," Akari laughed as they stopped to wait at the street lights so that they could continue onwards to the route that took them to the park. "I'm not really good in front of lot of people - I'd forget all my lines," she said and then looked at him curiously while stretching her arms. "Did _you_ forget any of yours lines?"

"Of course not," Hikaru snorted. "I only had like seven and they were all pretty short. It was easy." Most of his performance had consisted of acting like idiot which, if he so said himself, he had done pretty well. Though whether that was something one ought to be proud of was a whole different matter. "So, you think you're gonna keep on jogging when second semester starts?" he asked as the lights changed and they jogged over the crossing.

"I dunno. I might not have the time - though it's been pretty fun - and it's doing awesome things to my legs," Akari mused. "I might, but not this often anyhow. How about you?"

"Probably, yeah," Hikaru nodded. "My martial arts classes won't start until next month, so I won't be busy yet - and I think its better I keep myself in shape. It's probably best I make it a permanent habit." He would need to be as fit as possible if he wanted to be successful stuntman. And not get himself killed while at it.

"It'll be best for the gymnastic sessions," Akari mused while they crossed a bridge and came to the cherry tree filled park. "Oh, that reminds me, isn't there going to be a competition this fall, a gymnastic competition? Doesn't our school take part in it?"

"Yeah, but you and I can forget it. We're just freshmen and not that good at the whole stuff," Hikaru said, waving the matter aside. Sure, he had head the others in the gymnastic sessions talk about it, but even if he had had any interest in competition with something like that, he wouldn't have had the skills for it. It took some mad skills to make it with gymnastics, after all.

"Maybe in few years, yeah?" Akari asked thoughtfully and huffed out a breath. "Let's stop for a moment. I'm getting a leg cramp."

They stopped by some benches to stretch and take a break and while Akari tried to ease her leg muscles, Hikaru pondered about Gymnastics. He had started with them just for the exercise, mostly. It had helped him some with martial arts and such, but in reality he had next to no interest for the actual gymnastic stuff. Well, floor exercises could be pretty neat, some of the flips and such were just plain awesome, but the rest of it… Well, except for the high bar maybe, the rest of it was just useless for him. It made him wonder if there was really any point in continuing it.

_'It and Kendo,'_ Hikaru mused, stretching his arms absently. Kendo was interesting but again not particularly useful. All in all, he got more from the martial arts lessons, probably. And the acting lessons, despite the fact that he didn't much care for them. _'Well, I'll continue with the whole lot of it for now,'_ he decided. After the money invested in training uniforms and such, his parents would strangle him if he didn't made use of them. _'Not to mention about the gymnastic teacher and captain of the Kendo Club…'_

He was started out of his thoughts by the ringing coming from Akari's direction. She jumped slightly with surprise before fishing out her cell phone from her pocket. "Hello, Akari speaking?" she answered to the phone and shaking his head with disinterest Hikaru switched into another stretch. He paused when she spoke his name. "Ah, Hikaru? Yes, he's here with me… oh, alright," she said, and then handed the phone over to him. "It's your mom," she explained.

With a nod and a sigh Hikaru lifted the phone to his ear. "Yeah, what?"

"What a rude way of answering the phone," Michiko chuckled at him. "Sai is here to see you, Hikaru. I'm giving the phone to him," she said and before he got the chance to reply, the phone changed hands and Sai's voice came through the next.

"Hikaru?"

"Yes, yes, what?" Hikaru answered with a confused frown. Usually Sai announced when he was coming over and usually he knew better than to come when he knew Hikaru wasn't at home. "What are you doing at my house? You know this is the time I'm running with Akari."

"Yes yes, I know. I'm sorry about that," the other hurried to answer. "But you're near the end of your circle, right? I was going to wait until you came back, but Shindo-san insisted calling Akari-chan -"

"Sai," Hikaru interrupted impatiently, trying not to grin. "You got a reason for visiting or something?"

"Ah yes. I found something you might like, I brought back a brochure," the senior-high-schooler said and Hikaru could hear him leaf through some paper. "With your goal I mean. I was thinking that if you liked it, I could sponsor you some lessons - as your birthday gift."

"My birthday isn't until the twentieth," Hikaru answered, frowning. "Did you find _another_ acting class for me? Because I gotta tell you right now, I think I've had about as much acting as I can stand right now…"

"No, no, it's not that," Sai assured with a laugh. "Though I _was_ going pay your advanced acting classes at the agency, but never mind that. This is something else. I'll show you when you get home, alright?"

"Alright, fine. I'll head back," Hikaru sighed, not sure if he liked the sound of that. Sai was being worrisomely excited and that usually produced some mixed results for Hikaru. "Play some Go or something while you wait - and _don't_ tell mom about the play, or I _swear_ I'll kill you."

"Heh, heh, alright, if you insist," the older teen chuckled. "I'll see you when you get back, then."

"Right. Bye Sai," Hikaru answered before hanging up and handing the phone back to Akari, who was finished with her stretches now.

"You and that Sai have really gotten chummy, huh?" the girl asked while pocketing the phone.

Hikaru frowned at the words, not particularly caring for the word _chummy_. He couldn't argue against it, though, he realised. He and Sai were, sort of, chummy. "Yeah," he murmured, shifting his shoulders and then reaching them to the front in stretch. "I guess so."

"You guess so?" Akari asked, laughing. "You've known this guy like almost a year, and you _guess_ you've gotten chummy? You need more friends, Hikaru. Seriously."

"I have more than I can handle with you and Sai, thank you very much," Hikaru muttered, sighing. Well, Akari was pretty easy friend to have, but Sai was just plain bothersome. So much stuff to learn… just thinking about it all made him feel exhausted. And now Sai had found something else to add to the overwhelming number of tasks on his shoulders. Wonderful.

He sighed again. Might as well face it head on, whatever it was. "Let's head back."

"Alright," she said and then grinned. "Let's race. Last one there will buy refreshments the next time."

"You're on."

x

While waiting for Hikaru to return from his run, Sai entertained himself by doing what he usually did when he had access to Hikaru's room - cleaning it up. Hikaru wasn't exactly messy or anything like that - and his mother had a habit of cleaning the worst mess Hikaru made - but there were always some little things that Sai couldn't help but correcting. Disorganisation of his bookshelf, the messiness of his desk, some things under his bed which ought to be else where… It wasn't like he was trying to be intentionally nitpicky, but Sai was too much of a perfectionist to leave them alone.

_And maybe if I do this often enough, Hikaru will realise how much easier it is to have your things in order,'_ he mused once he had managed to the bookshelf into order. Sai smiled faintly at that particularly optimistic idea. _'I probably shouldn't hold my breath, though,'_ he mused. Making Hikaru serious about something was easy, others not so much. Especially if it was something as unimportant as cleanliness.

Once his surroundings were in order, only then he reached for the Goban which stood on its usual place in a niche between the desk and the bookshelf. Pulling it out to the middle of the room, Sai checked it and the stones to see that they were clean, before sitting down and starting to recreate one of his and Hikaru's games. While playing their hands out one by one and marvelling how far Hikaru had gotten over the months, he thought back to the play Hikaru had taken part of, and tried not to giggle.

_'Despite how against acting he seems to be, Hikaru did seem to enjoy himself up there,'_ he thought, thinking back to the scene where Hikaru had played a drunken businessman trying to make pair of lost girls buy his car. It had been completely random and absolutely hilarious. Hikaru had even worn a suit and tie and a wig and everything.

He would've loved to see Hikaru perform more. Unlike most in the play, Hikaru had really gotten into it and gone all out. _'All in all, I would prefer if he would decide that he would rather be an actor,'_ Sai mused, imagining it for a moment. Hikaru showed the promise of a handsome man and with all the training he was doing… he would do pretty well just by his looks. And if Hikaru would really get into it, he would be pretty good actor too. But no, he still wanted to be a stuntman. _'Such dangerous occupation choice…'_ Even after months, it still didn't seem any safer than before.

Sai shook his head. _'I gave up on trying changing his mind months ago. I shouldn't start contemplating such useless things again,'_ he thought determinately. _'I am only going to be supportive. Right.'_ He nodded and turned his attention back to the Goban. _'If he decides to act instead of something else, then okay, that's good, but until then… I am going to be supportive for what he decides now.'_

He perked up a little as he heard the door downstairs opening and closing. Soon after he could hear Shindo-san yelping out in horror. "Oh dear _lords_ Hikaru, you _stink_! Shower, go take a shower, immediately!" she demanded and by the sound of Hikaru's objections he was being ushered to the bathroom. Sai chuckled at the sound of them struggling and how Hikaru soon gave up. Which was just as well - Sai wasn't particularly fond of the smell of sweaty Hikaru either.

"Sorry for the wait," Hikaru said as he came upstairs sometime later, towelling his hair and carrying a water bottle. He looked around and seemed rather unimpressed by the look of his newly arranged bookshelf. "I see you managed to entertain yourself."

"Well, you never said I couldn't," Sai answered with a smile while starting to clear the Goban of the game he had been remaking. "How was your run?"

"How it usually is. Pretty good," Hikaru answered, falling to sit beside his friend with his towel hanging around his neck. He opened the water bottle with a sigh and took a long drink. "So, what was that thing you found?" he asked, looking around. "You said something about a brochure?"

"Ah, yes. This," Sai nodded, reaching out to pull out the pamphlet from his book pack. He handed it to the younger boy and smiled as Hikaru frowned with confusion. "It's a gym which was opened just about a month ago. I just found out about it today, and I thought you might like it."

"Hmm… I don't know, I'm not really the sort to go to gym to work out. I prefer running and doing push-ups and stuff," Hikaru answered while opening the brochure. His eyes widened as he saw what had caught Sai's interest about the place. "Climbing walls, huh?"

"Yes!" Sai nodded with excitement. "They even give lessons to beginners, and teach you how to use the equipment and such. I thought that, with stuntmen often needing to use such harnesses, this might be good practice. A way to get you adjusted to these sorts of things. And it looks like pretty good exercise too."

"Yeah. This looks pretty cool," Hikaru agreed, narrowing his eyes as he read the explanation about the climbing walls and such. "Rock climbing huh. Never really thought about that, but it seems pretty awesome. How much -" he started and promptly stopped before frowning. "Ah. _That_ much."

"I can pay for it," Sai assured, snatching the brochure from the other's hand. "It would be your birthday gift, like I said. It's no big deal, really."

"Eight thousand yen per week isn't much? Plus three thousand per lesson?" Hikaru asked with disbelief. "Not much my _ass_. I'm already wading knee-deep in debts to you!"

"Well, it could be your birthday and your Christmas present," Sai answered casually. _'It's not like I have much else to spend my pocket money on,'_ he mused, shaking his head. "But if you don't want to try it, then I'll think something else."

"No, no, this seems pretty cool. Just, you know, expensive," Hikaru muttered, frowning.

"Nonsense," Sai answered and smiled, knowing he had won the argument. He put the brochure away, fully intending to visit the place to see what sort of memberships they offered and how to get Hikaru into the climbing lessons. _'I need to check out his schedule,'_ he mused. It wouldn't do if the lessons would be at the same time as Hikaru's other lessons.

"You don't need to do this all for me, you know," Hikaru said suddenly while pulling the Goban closer. "You're already paying for my lessons. I could, I don't know… save my allowance for the climbing lessons."

"No, no. I want to do this," Sai assured with a dismissive wave of his hand. "If you really must you can pay me back when you are using these skills to earn money, but don't worry about it now."

Hikaru frowned. "Why _are_ you doing this stuff for me?" he suddenly asked. "How much money have you spent on me already? The acting classes at your school are one thing but the ones at the agency are _expensive_. Now this?" he shifted so that he could face Sai completely. "Even if I had the money, I wouldn't do this for someone else. Not unless they were like relative or something."

Sai frowned and then, before he could help himself, he looked away. "You're… my friend, Hikaru," he then said, feeling a bit awkward. Hikaru wasn't the friendly sort of person, not really, so maybe he would take it wrong, but Sai had never had such a close friend before. Was it so wrong to want to cherish that any way he could, was it so odd that he wanted to help the other out? _'Maybe I am being a bit overzealous, with this friendship,'_ he thought suddenly. He didn't exactly have much experience.

"…oh," Hikaru answered, and there was a long, rather uncomfortable silence for a moment. Then, to Sai's surprise, he suddenly threw one arm around Sai's shoulders, tugging the elder teen closer. "That's okay then, I suppose," he said while almost giving Sai a noogie, making the other almost freeze with surprise. "Girly boy," Hikaru added, almost as an after note.

"Meanie," Sai muttered awkwardly in answer, glancing up from Hikaru's shoulder and then down to the fore arm holding him. Hikaru was getting pretty strong, for a twelve year old - or almost-thirteen year old.

"Yeah yeah," Hikaru answered before pulling his hand back and grinning at him. "How about a game?"

"That would be lovely," Sai nodded, and sighed as Hikaru shifted back and situated the Goban between them. He had no idea why, but for some reason he got the feeling he had somehow gotten that question wrong. But how else could he answer? Hikaru _was_ his friend, that _was_ why he was helping him out. Still… oddly enough he wasn't quite satisfied with the result.

"Oh, that reminds me," Hikaru muttered as he, automatically, took the black stones. "I met Toya Akira in train the day I met your folks. I completely forgot about that," he said, leaning his head back. "He asked me to visit the salon where he taught me Go."

Sai glanced up, raising his eyebrows. _'What a sudden change of subject, but I suppose that's like Hikaru,'_ he mused and opened the bowl of white stones. "Are you going to?" he asked while placing the bowl's lid to the side and putting the bowl itself in front of him.

"I hadn't really thought about it," Hikaru answered and placed the first stone below the lower left star. "I forgot about it. But…" he hummed thoughtfully and then shook his head. "I don't think I will."

"Oh? Why not?" Sai asked while placing a white stone to the upper right star. "Weren't you on friendly terms?"

"Yeah, kinda. But Toya is kinda strange. He was really weird on the train, kinda like… I dunno, possessed," Hikaru muttered and shuddered at the memory. "He's taking the Go-exam and he said he was disappointed with it. The opponents weren't good enough or something like that. He was being bit of a jerk. I don't know why he wanted _me_ to come by, I mean, I'm beginner, it's not like I can offer any better challenge."

Sai couldn't help but chuckle at that. Hikaru had no idea how _fast_ he learned. It had been a long while since Sai had played anyone else but Hikaru, but already Hikaru was above any beginners. _'I imagine Toya Akira would be surprised by his progress,'_ he thought and suddenly felt odd, guilty feeling of relief. The emotion struck out of nowhere and surprised him so completely that he missed Hikaru making the next move in the game.

"Sai, it's your turn," Hikaru said, and hurriedly the other made his move on the board, still completely confused by the sudden appearance of the odd relief. It came out of nowhere and for no particular reason. he hadn't been _worried_ about anything, not really, so why was he relieved? Because Hikaru was getting good at Go? That wasn't really relieving, it was _gratifying_, it was _exciting_, but he had no need to be relieved by it. He had always though Hikaru would become a good Go player, he had always…

He blinked sharply and looked up to Hikaru, replaying the other's words in his head. "So, you do not intend to go back to the salon because you think that Toya Akira is rude?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Well, that and he's weird. I dunno what he would do if I went there. Probably demand that I would come again and again or something and that would be annoying. And then he'd get irritated with me because I'm not good enough or something, and that would be a pain," Hikaru shrugged. "I figure if I don't go there and stuff, he'll just forget about me and bother someone else."

Sai swallowed, as the relieved feeling returned. The realisation that he was reassured that Hikaru wouldn't go and meet with Toya Akira was odd and worrying. He turned to look down to the Goban again, trying not to show anything in his face. It was almost like he was… not jealous but worried. No, that wasn't quite right either….

_'Possessive,'_ he then realised, looking up at Hikaru. He was _possessive_ of Hikaru's Go. like he had restrained himself from ever playing anyone else - and really, it was a restriction on _him_ as it wasn't as if anyone _missed_ playing him - he wanted to restrict Hikaru as well. _'I don't want anyone else to know about Hikaru's Go. I don't want anyone to play him. I don't want him to play anyone…'_

He only wanted Hikaru to play him. No one else.

He coughed as the sudden ugliness of his own personality revealed its full extent to him. "Perhaps you should reconsider," he said. "You - you might learn something new," he added and then looked away sharply as a sudden coldness gripped him. _'What am I saying?'_

Hikaru glanced up and sighed with annoyance. "I'm so bad you want me to have a teacher with Go too?" he asked.

"No, that's not it, I just…" Sai started and stopped, staring at the Goban, trying figure out what he really wanted to say. He _didn't_ want Hikaru to meet with Toya Akira again, but he felt horrible because of it. He had no right trying to limit what Hikaru could or could not do, especially not with Go. Go was something that needed to be shared so that I grew - no one learned _that much_ by playing just one opponent all the time…

Sai shivered slightly, feeling the painful hypocrisy of his attitude with Go. He bowed his head and tried not to frown. He was better than Hikaru. But he… was probably not as good as he could be, because he hadn't played anyone in such a long time. If Hikaru would only play him, his skills would be stunted - just like Sai's own were.

"You… you should play more people," he said. _'I have no right,'_ he thought determinately. _'No right.'_ "You would learn more than… than just playing me all the time."

He could feel Hikaru's stare on him for a long while as the silence stretched, making him wonder if he should say something else to break the quiet. When Hikaru finally spoke, it was with a laugh. "I'm not that serious about Go," he said, making Sai glance up with surprise. "I only want to play you."

Sai blinked and didn't know what to say to that. Hikaru wasn't serious about go. He only wanted to play Sai. The elder teen blinked again and lifted his head, suddenly confused. How could someone play so much Go, and not be serious? What was it to be _serious_ about Go anyway? Sai studied old Go all the time, but only played with Hikaru. That probably couldn't be called serious.

"Oh," he murmured, feeling oddly disappointed - not just with Hikaru but more with himself. He really had quit Go that time, years ago. He hadn't just completely realised it until now. He had studied, sure, he had replayed games, of course, but not playing meant he wasn't serious. "Right," he whispered. He had stopped taking Go seriously when he had decided to be a musician instead.

"Whatever," Hikaru said, sighing at him. "Let's just play the game."

"Yes, of course," Sai nodded and turned his attention back to the Goban. He was disappointed with himself - and still, when he thought about it, the idea of having Hikaru's Go all to himself still pleased him. It was an odd feeling. "I'll visit the gym and see about the climbing lessons," he said in attempt of distracting himself. "I need copy of your schedule to make sure they don't happen at the same time as your other lessons."

"My martial arts lessons aren't on yet, and I don't know when they'll be once they start," Hikaru said. "But I suppose I can work something out."

"Good," Sai nodded, staring at the Goban and wondering when he had became such a person. "That's good…"

x

Hmm... This chapter didn't turn out the way I planned. I think it came out a little better for it, though. Aslo, Trial and Error will be updated once I manage to write more of it, and no, Sai will not be playing Akira anytime soon, nor will Hikaru and Sai go off to become Go professionals. This story isn't really about Go as much as it just has Go in it

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such, and my thanks for the comments and such.


	12. To Reach

**XII chapter**

**To Reach**

Rock climbing was _awesome_. It was awesome enough for Hikaru not to care how expensive it was or how much of an asshole one of the guys in the beginner's lessons was - or how the teacher, who was a foreigner, kept mispronouncing his name. The strain of climbing, the achievement of reaching the stop and then the thrill of jumping down to hang from the safety harness, it was freaking _epic_. It even topped the martial arts lessons.

"I'm glad that you like it," Sai chuckled when he later, after making his way to Sai's apartment once more, told about it.

"Like it? I _love_ it. One day I'm going to try climbing a real rock wall. That ought to be brilliant," Hikaru said, pumping his fist into the air. He couldn't really say that he had been the best of his class - the asshole was better and faster, making Hikaru rather sure he had climbed before and had joined the class just to show off. But who cared, the climbing stuff was still _awesome_. And it was a good work out.

"You should use the opportunity to practice falling as much as you can," Sai mused, turning his attention away from Hikaru and into the books spread across his desk in unusual display of disorder. "Stunts are mostly about that sort of things after all. Falling, crashing…"

"Yeah. I already arranged it with the teacher, he said he could show me some safe falling techniques and flips and such the next time," Hikaru nodded, already looking forward to it. The climbing itself was fun too, but it was the falls he liked the most. It was like slow-motion flying at times.

"That's good to hear," Sai nodded, taking a pen and making a mark on one of the papers. "I hope you learn what you want to learn."

Hikaru frowned, leaning closer with curiosity. Usually Sai stopped working on his homework and such when he showed up. "What's with all the books? Are you falling behind or something?" he asked worriedly. The concept was ludicrous, but Sai _still_ wasn't looking up from the books.

"No, I am actually advancing," Sai answered with a sigh, writing something down to a note book. "Since my scores in the last semester were so good, as well as on my first year, the principal suggested advanced teaching program to me. I decided to accept it. It will make schoolwork a bit more challenging for me than it has been previously."

"Advanced? What, you get like harder problems to solve than everyone else?" Hikaru asked confusedly.

"In a way, but no, that is not it exactly. Calling if advanced might be a bit misleading. It is more… accelerated," Sai said thoughtfully, glancing up with smile. "I am going through my subjects faster than is usually done. I intend to be through with the second year subjects before Christmas - hopefully long before it - and then tackle third year subjects. If it goes as planned, I will graduate a year early in next spring."

Hikaru blinked. "Woah, really? I've heard of people being held back a year, but you're the first person I know to get year ahead. Do you think you can do it?"

"Maybe," Sai shrugged while lowering the pen and finally closing the books. "As I said, it will be a challenge. I will lose really nothing if I don't manage to keep the accelerated schedule, I will merely graduate as the others in my age level do." He looked up to Hikaru and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry. I doubt I will have as much time as I usually do to help you with your school work."

"That's okay. I don't really need your help as much anymore anyway," Hikaru shrugged, stretching his arms and then crossing his wrists behind his neck. "I think I got your learning techniques down to an art form by now."

"True," the elder teen agreed and stood up. "Do you want something to drink perhaps?"

"Yeah, sure," Hikaru nodded and then followed the other teen to the kitchen. "So, what are you gonna do after, if you get your school over with quicker?"

"If it looks like I can manage the accelerated pace, I will start applying to various universities," Sai answered while taking out a bottle of juice and then reaching out for some glasses. "I will start sending out tapes and videos and portfolios and such. Hopefully I will get into one of the universities and can start there once my senior high is over."

"Wow. You don't let the dust settle, do you?" Hikaru murmured. Sai had mentioned the whole university thing before, hadn't he? Hikaru could remember something about foreign schools… "Weren't you going to try applying abroad?" he asked while accepting his glass of juice.

"Yes," Sai agreed while sitting down by the kitchen table. "Hopefully I will get into the one I want in United States, but I will have several other options ready if it doesn't work out."

"Oh," Hikaru murmured. It just showed how different the worlds they came from were. Hikaru would've never even _considered_ something like that while Sai had it all planned out like this. _'It makes things easy when you're a genius. And rich,'_ he mused, sitting down as well and taking a sip of the juice. "You're amazing sometimes, Sai," he mused.

Sai glanced at him and for a moment it looked like he would get embarrassed, but then he shook his head. "If you say so," he said, which to Hikaru sounded immediately wrong.

_'If I say so? What the hell is that?'_ Hikaru wondered, blinking. Usually Sai either got embarrassed about stuff like that and tried to deny it, or he accepted it without much acknowledgement and moved on. "What's up?" the younger teen asked, frowning.

Sai hesitated for a moment before sighing and straightening his back a bit. "It is nothing. Nothing important," he said, or tried to, but Hikaru kept on frowning at him until he gave up on the humility act. "I have been… wondering, is all," the elder teen said, sounding slightly defensive. "About… Go, and music. About what I will be doing, five or ten years from now."

Hikaru's frown deepened before he leaned back a bit, eying his friend thoughtfully. What was this, now? "You'll be either still studying or playing cello in some big orchestra, won't you?" he asked, a bit confused. "Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes, yes, of course it is. But…" Sai trailed away, with an odd sort of frown on his usually smooth brow. Like he wasn't sure what he was frowning about. He cast a glance towards the living room, and Hikaru didn't need to see to know what he was looking at – from that angle, Sai could only see the book shelves, and the Goban. And Hikaru doubted that the bookshelves could cause anyone any conflict of emotion.

"You'll still be playing Go too, you know," he said tentatively, not sure what he was supposed to say to chase away that odd frown, but knowing he had to say something. "You'll probably be playing it until you're all crotchety and grey and your hair will be dragging on the floor, gathering dust and random dirt."

"I will never let my hair drag on the floor," Sai said, a little indignant, but not enough to sound like himself yet. He sighed, and glanced at the Goban again.

Hikaru frowned, and glanced backwards again. The Goban was clear, not a single stone upon it. But the stone bowls were on the floor, sitting next to each other. Sai had been replaying games. "So what?" he asked. "You'd prefer to play Go, than play music? Play it professionally? I thought…" he trailed away, a bit awkward. The subject of Sai's _banishment_ from the Go Association wasn't exactly a taboo, but it wasn't something they had talked about either, not since the first time.

"No. Yes. I…" Sai paused and then shook his head. "I've, uh… I've studied Go for what seems like all my life," he said thoughtfully, softly. "I've played a lot, and then I didn't, and now I am playing you – and it's been wonderful, but…"

"But what?" Hikaru pressed on, when Sai stopped talking. He leaned forward a bit, leaning his elbows onto the kitchen table. "Sai?"

"I can tell you're improving, with each game we play," Sai said, bowing his head. "I can't… tell if I am. I don't think I am." The rest was said barely above a whisper, and before Hikaru could try and figure out what Sai meant with that, the elder teen lifted his head. "It's nothing. I'm just being silly," Sai spoke determinately, and stood up. "I should get back to my books, I need to draw a schedule for myself, I –"

"Sai," Hikaru said, before the other could withdraw completely, feeling entirely too out of depth with this but unable to leave the matter just at that, not when it obviously bothered the other teen so much. "You could just start playing other people, you know. You said it yourself; people improve more when they have more opponents, right? There are Go salons everywhere, you could just pick one and –"

"No. No, I couldn't. I… couldn't," Sai said, shaking his head and very nearly scowling. There was a moment of awkward, uneasy silence, before he shook his head again, with more vigour. "No. This is silly, this is _stupid_. I need to concentrate onto my studies. Especially if I ever want to graduate, not to mention about graduating early," he muttered, as he walked out of the kitchen, leaving Hikaru alone at the table.

"What the hell?" Hikaru murmured after him, too low to be heard, but didn't follow. Instead he turned his eyes to the drink he hadn't finished yet, and folded his arms, trying to think his way through what Sai had said. It was about Go – which was Sai's great big landmine of a personal demon, as much as it was a private delight. How someone could put so much emotion and sentimentality into a board game, Hikaru didn't know, but Sai certainly did. Sai didn't want to play, but he wanted to play. How did that make any sense?

Unless it wasn't about playing itself. Sai played him, after all. Sai played by himself – Sai replayed probably dozens of ancient games per day, if he had the time. Sai could play, and Sai wanted to play, but he wouldn't play people, wouldn't go to a Go salon – probably wouldn't go to save his life, if Hikaru knew his friend at all. So what was it? Not Go itself, not playing Go… but _playing_. Playing against _people_.

"Huh," Hikaru muttered, his forehead smoothing out from its frown as he glanced over his shoulder and at the living room – he couldn't see Sai from that angle, the desk wasn't in the view of the kitchen door. It didn't matter though. He thought he had a handle on the problem now, and it was… a bit surprising. Sai, who was so proud and so determined, who studied in high and mighty fancy pants school and who played cello in front of audiences of hundreds… had a _stage fright_. A Go specific stage fright, but one nonetheless.

_'No, that's not precisely it. I doubt he's actually frightened about playing in front of people. But it's something like it. He doesn't want to play people he don't know, people who don't know him, and he doesn't want to play where people can see him. Yeah, something like that,'_ Hikaru mused and stood up. _'But he wants to play. Really, really wants to. Just, not with people involved. Alright.'_

He wasn't sure what he could do about it, if there was anything anyone could do about it. But Sai had gotten him to ton of classes and was now paying for the awesomeness that was rock-climbing. He'd be damned if he didn't _try_.

x

The problem with finding a solution of Sai's Go-induced skill crisis was that he had no idea what he was even trying to find. A way to play Go without playing people? Sai was already doing that was much as it could be done, wasn't he? He was replaying old games, and he was sometimes playing Go against himself, though Hikaru wasn't sure how that worked, since you always knew what your opponents next move was going to be… Was there any other way? And if there was, how was he going to find it?

Go Weekly was no help whatsoever. All it had was games between people, games played, games to be played, games which had been great and public, and which had won people titles – all public, all between two people, and all quite often watched by a bunch of people. Useless magazine. None of the Go-For-Idiots books Hikaru had gotten in the beginning helped either, since they only explained the basics and rules and terminology and stuff like that, and had next to nothing about actually playing people. And Hikaru wasn't sure where else he could research? Library? Yeah, right, he'd just end up running to the same books Sai had, the ones full of old Kifu, and that'd be it.

In the end, he approached his grandpa for the first time since having whined the Goban from him. Heiachi welcomed him with partial suspicion and partial pleasure – though they hadn't played yet, Hikaru's grandfather took odd sort of personal pride in the fact that Hikaru was now interested in Go, and was now waiting for Hikaru to _"learn for few more months, until he could be a proper opponent,"_ the geezer. But still, he was the closest Go-maniac Hikaru knew next to Sai, and thus the closest source of information.

"Way to play Go without playing people?" Heiachi asked, frowning. "Go is a people game you know – what's the point in it, if you don't play against someone?"

"No, I mean, is there a way to play against someone without… I don't know," Hikaru faltered a bit, a little unsure about what he meant. "Without being there? I mean, if you wanted to play someone, but you didn't want to actually see them? I don't know."

"What, like long distance?" the old man asked, and stroked a hand across his chin. "Well, I used to have a friend, with whom I exchanged Go moves over letter. I'd send him the opening move, he'd follow up with his return and so forth."

Hikaru eyed him suspiciously. "Wouldn't that take years?" he asked. "Is the game still going? I bet it is."

"No it isn't, you brat," Heiachi snapped, hitting him upside the head with the newspaper he was holding. "If you don't care for it, don't do it. But that's the only way I can think of. I suppose these days you could use a cell phone for that, but…"

"But that would take ages too," the teen muttered and sighed. And how would one find opponents like that – by putting an ad onto the newspaper? Bah. "And there is no other way?"

"Well, not that I know of. I could ask around in the Go salon I go to, some there might know," Heiachi promised thoughtfully. He shook his head. "Playing Go without playing people. You're a weird kid at times, you know that, Hikaru."

"I am awesome and no geezer like you will convince me otherwise," Hikaru muttered. He glanced up at his grandfather. "When are you going to the Go salon the next?" he asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"Well. I suppose we could go there now," Heiaci said thoughtfully, glancing at the clock on the wall as he folded his newspaper. "I don't have anything better to do. Don't you have any lessons to take, though?"

"Not today. Will have an acting lesson tomorrow, and then I've got some rock-climbing. Have I told you yet how _awesome_ rock-climbing is? Not that old geezer like you could do it, of course, but even you can appreciate the awesomeness that – ow!" Hikaru complained, as he was hit upon the head again, this time with a folded newspaper. "Stop hitting me!"

"Stop being such a brat, and I will," Heiachi said, snorting with amusement.

Soon after they were making their way out. Hikaru found to his relief that the Go salon wasn't too far, and he didn't have to endure his grandfather's usual blabber about his past career as award winning amateur Go player, and the hallowed Inoue-san Heiachi had once beaten in some tournament. The Go salon wasn't as impressive as the one Hikaru had gone before, the one owned by Toya Akira's father, but it was a neat enough place – not as classy or decorated as the other one, but it had tables and Goban and people, so it was about just as good. And there was the added bonus of no creepy Go professionals hanging about.

"Hey, Heiachi!" one of the old geezers called from the back. "Come and play with me, this idiot's been loosing four times a row now!"

"That's because you keep distracting me!" the old geezer who was his opponent complained. "And you nearly poured tea all over me and ruined by concentration!"

"I'll be there in a minute, just let me pay for myself and my grandbrat," Heiachi answered, snorting, and did as promised while Hikaru peered around curiously. The place was hazy with smoke, and some of the geezers were smoking – there was an ash tray on every table. Hikaru grimaced a bit at that, knowing he'd end up stinking of tobacco by the time he managed to make his escape.

"Oh, that's your grandkid, the one who's going to be an actor?" another geezer asked. "You don't look like much, kid."

"And you don't look much out of your grave – you sure you should be still walking around?" Hikaru asked back, and was laughed at for his troubles.

It turned out all of the people in the Go salon were weird geezers, just like his grandfather. They needled each other and by the looks of it, couple did all they could but cheat each other as they played. Heiachi seemed to fit the crowd perfectly, and was soon playing against another geezer, both cackling away like pair of old loonies.

"Okay, I am not going to just stand around here, and watch you snail your way through a game," Hikaru decided, after watching them meander around the corners of the board for a while. His and Sai's games were much better paced – they usually got to the fight of it in less than twenty moves, but these geezers were already forty moves in and they hadn't as much as met yet on the board. "Ask them already, grandpa, so that I can just go."

"Ask them what?" the geezer who was his grandfather's opponent asked, sounding amused.

Heiachi rolled his eyes. "Some weird thing he got into his head," he said, and then explained Hikaru's dilemma. His opponent eyed them with look of confusion, blinking and then shaking his head.

"Playing Go without playing people? The hell?" he asked, and then laughed. "Kid, do you even know what Go is? It's a people game, you know. You play against people – that's the whole point!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hikaru muttered, annoyed. "It's just that some people don't like going into smelly saloons to try and find themselves opponents. There's got to be another way, which doesn't involve… face to face contact," he said, motioning at the geezer's wrinkly, weathered face. Which was sporting a _gruesome_ beard.

"You could try net Go," someone said from behind him, and Hikaru glanced backwards to see one of the younger men in the saloon, just getting up from his seat, wallet in hand – probably to get more smokes from the vending machine.

"What?" Hikaru asked.

"Net Go," the man said, shrugging his shoulders. "There is this site, World Igo Net, where you can play people. And there is also NetGo, and Go On Web and –"

Hikaru blinked and then quickly stood up. "You can play Go on the _internet_?" he asked. Though he hadn't had much chance to do more or less anything with computers, they did have a computer class at school and he, like just about every other boy in the class, had discovered various ways of killing time in the internet while ignoring the teacher. One of those included playing virtual game of Pool. He hadn't even thought that there might be a way to do the same thing with _Go_.

"Yeah, sure," the man said, sounding bored as he went through his coins. "Just do an internet search for Go, and you're bound to find something," he added, before walking towards the vending machine.

Playing Go on the internet. Against opponents. Hikaru blinked, as his thoughts raced with the possibilities. Sai had a computer – a laptop he only rarely used to do his school work, of course, but he had one nonetheless. Did Sai have internet connection? Well, he had enough money to get one, probably. But Hikaru couldn't just rush off to demand Sai to try, not without knowing if it worked first.

"Grandpa, I'm going to go home now," he said, thinking of his father's tabletop, usually used just for work but maybe…

"Already?" Heiachi asked, frowning. "We just came."

"Well, it's just geezers here and it smells horrible," Hikaru said. "Besides, I got to try something. If it works, you are buying me a laptop for my birthday."

"I am not," Heiachi answered with a snort, while twisting around in his chair to look at Hikaru. "You got an idea then, brat?"

"Yeah, maybe," Hikaru said, considering it. "You and mum and dad and grandma could buy it for me together? Like a joined gift?" he suggested hopefully. When Heiachi just eyed him amusedly, he pressed on. "It'd be joined birthday and Christmas present? Please?"

"I'll think about it, but I wouldn't hold up any hopes, not with the money your parent's have been putting into your classes," Heiachi said, with another snort.

"Maybe I can negotiate," Hikaru murmured. Well, it wouldn't matter, if the whole thing wouldn't work. And it might not and then he wouldn't have any use for a computer. He needed to try the net thing first, before starting to wheedle a computer out of his parents. "Anyway, I'm off," he said. "Bye grandpa. Have fun snail-playing."

"Just go away already," Heiachi said, waving a hand at him. "And if your mother asks, I did not take you into a bar, got it?"

"If mom asks, you took me into a bar. Got it," Hikaru grinned and hurried off before his grandfather could throw anything at him.

x

World Igo Net, NetGo and Go On Web all turned out to be pretty awesome sites. It took Hikaru good three hours of fighting with his father's computer before he got it to work, though – he had to install something because the NetGo's Go playing thing wouldn't work without it, but hopefully his dad wouldn't mind it too much when he came home. And of course, he did a lot of mistakes at first, like signing in with his own name in the beginning, and then realising that Japanese keyboard worked somewhat badly with English site, but in the end… _hikaru_ got to play Go on the web, against opponent called _50ngs_, without ever having to learn more about his opponent than the nick, and the moves he/she made.

It wasn't quite like normal Go. It was _weird_, to have the grid the way it was, and to click instead of placing down an actual, physical stone. It took Hikaru good twenty minutes to realise they were on a clock too, and that there was a time limit to every move, and that no, there was no way to take back a misplaced move. What bothered him the most, though, was the sound of the stones being placed – it was an odd _pip_ sort of noise, rather than the old familiar _pachi_ of a seashell or slate against wood.

But it worked. It was Go. Playing Go, without seeing a person, without _playing a person_. It was faceless, easy, and precisely what Hikaru had been looking for.

"Oh, come on! It'll be birthday and Christmas together!" Hikaru wheedled, while his mother just sighed, trying to ignore him as she prepared the dinner. "And you won't have to pay me any allowance until after Christmas! It's pretty good deal, isn't it? And it doesn't have to be any really _good_ laptop. I just need the internet to work on it, and it doesn't even have to be that fast. Please? Pretty please? I won't ask anything else ever again, I promise!"

"Yes, that'll happen," Mitsuko chuckled, shaking her head and glancing at him with an indulgent smile. "What do you need a computer for anyway? Aren't you already busy with your lessons? And you have school too, you know."

"Yeah, well, I could use the computer to study more," Hikaru said, perking up a bit. "Sai said that English is the language of the internet, so having a computer would help me learn more, you know? And I could write my essays and whatnot on the computer too!"

"You could use your father's tabletop for that, you know," she pointed out.

"Well, not when ever dad's here. He's always working on his computer," Hikaru muttered and sighed, crossing his arms on the kitchen table and leaning his chin onto them. "Please? Pretty please? It would be useful gift, and I'd be able to use it for years, you know."

"I don't know, Hikaru," Mitsuko said, shaking her head. "Laptops are rather expensive, you know. And we were planning to buy you a new bike."

"Bikes are expensive too you know, and I never even use a bike," Hikaru said, perking up again. "I run more than I bicycle, you know."

"That's true enough," Mitsuko murmured and then sighed. "Alright, I'll talk about it with your father, but I can't promise you anything. And if, and I do mean _if_, we get you a laptop, there will be strict limit to how much time you get to spend on the internet. And there will be sites you can't go to."

"Huh?" Hikaru asked, confused. "What sort of sites?"

"Well… certain harmful sites. Internet is a bit… well, never mind. I will talk about it with your father," she said, rather lamely. Then she cast him a sidelong look. "And, you know, it might improve your chances of success if you'd spend little more attention to your studies."

"What? The semester only just started! And I haven't got a grade below eighty percent, have I?" Hikaru asked, lifting his head a bit. "I've got the acting lessons and martial arts classes and the gymnasium club and kendo club and the rock climbing too, you know! There are only so many hours a day!"

"Well…" Mitsuko trailed off, tilting her head thoughtfully. "You have quite a lot of extracurricular activities, don't you? How many classes and clubs are you going now? Five?"

"Six," Hikaru answered. Two acting classes, martial arts classes, Kendo, Gymnastics, and the rock climbing too… most twice a week, except for gymnastics which was four times a week, hour or so before school started. And Kendo which was when ever there was any extra time.

"Hmm…" his mother hummed, frowning a bit. "I know that the rock climbing lessons were gift from Sai-kun, but do you think you really need to –"

"Yeah, they're most useful of the lot so far," Hikaru said a bit uneasily. "I was actually thinking that maybe I should quit Kendo – I know the uniform cost a lot of money but… and I'm not that sure about the gymnastics either, anymore. I'm working out about as much in martial arts and learning more – and I can use the gym where the rock climbing lessons take place, because Sai's got me the membership."

The gymnastic coach would kill him and the Kendo captain would probably skewer him but… he didn't actually need those lessons as much. He had gotten all he needed from the gymnastics, and was more limber than he had ever been. The martial arts would help him more from there on, because they were more about getting hurt and dealing with it, than gymnastics which were more about flinging yourself this way and that and trying to look pretty while doing it. Neat, but not what he was after.

Mitsuko eyed him thoughtfully. "Well," she said after a moment. "Let's think about it for few days. Talk about it with Sai-kun, maybe? Figure out if you really want to quit," she said, turning back to the food. "Now, please set the table. The food is almost ready."

"Right," Hikaru murmured, and got to work. He'd talk about with Sai when he told Sai about the NetGo and the others he found. Hopefully, Sai wouldn't think he was an idiot for suggesting them. And hopefully, Sai would get out from the funk he had gotten into.

x

HikaGo baby, I've missed you. Come here and let me love you.

Mind you it's been a long time since I've written to this, so I have next to no idea what I'm doing any more. If there are some continuity errors... Well, I didn't reread the whole story before starting to write again.

Also, this is gonna be slash. Hikaru x Sai. Just so you know. It's inevitable.

My apologies for possible grammar errors.


	13. To Plan

**XIII chapter**

**To Plan**

"How is it that I figured this faster than you did?" Hikaru asked, while Sai peered into the screen of his laptop, trying to figure out the outlay of the NetGo site. "You've been using a computer whole lot longer than I have!"

"Mostly for school work, not for… this," Sai murmured, frowning. He wasn't quite sure about the concept of playing net in the internet, despite everything Hikaru had said and showed about it. Watching Hikaru play a virtual game of Go against some nearly nameless – well, the opponent's name had been _Gourmet_ so they might've as well been nameless – opponent had been… interesting. And strange. It lacked all the aspects of playing someone face to face, and yet the Go was there – stranger, sharper, more distant than in your usual physical game of Go, but… it was Go.

"So, I register here?" he murmured, and with Hikaru's eager instruction, he did just that. Since Hikaru had gone with his own name and signed in as _hikaru_, Sai decided to do the same and sign in as _sai_. His registry entry promptly marked him as a beginner, somewhat pointedly informing him that he had neither lost nor won a single game, and that his record was non-existent.

"You get dan levels in NetGo by beating opponents and problems – there are a whole pages and forums full of them here," Hikaru explained. "Also there are web tournaments every now and then – I think one of them runs twice a month or so, but the big ones are only once year. Honinbo, Ouza and Meijin, you know."

"What?" Sai asked, blinking as he turned to face the younger teen.

"Well, they're not the real thing, obviously. It's more like net-Honinbo, net-Ouza and net-Meijin," Hikaru explained, shrugging. "And you don't win anything by getting them, except you get the title in front of your name if you win them, so your nick would be like _Honinbo sai_ if you won the net tournament – and it'd stay that way until someone else won it. It's just something for the people in these sites to do, I suppose, and way for them to rank each other."

As Sai tried to figure out if that was or wasn't insulting to the actual tournaments and why he cared, Hikaru leaned forward and took the mouse from him, bringing forth a list of rankings with a single click. "Here's the current top three," he said, pointing at the list. "_Seiji_'s top one, and people think he might be a pro – he doesn't take part in the net tournaments though. Then there is _lee,_ who's the current net-Ouza, and then there's _Kipra_ and so forth."

"I see," Sai murmured, leaning forward. There were rankings beside the names and number of games they had played. Some of them had played as many as thousands of games. "Yikes," he murmured, but his eyes narrowed a little with interest. He didn't care much for the net-tournaments, but thousands of games against opponents you never had to meet, of whom you only knew the nick they chose to go by…

"Alright," he said, and took the mouse again. "How do I play?"

"Go there," Hikaru pointed the screen. "There should be a list of people online – yep, that's it. Now, you right click one of the names, and choose _Challenge_. If they want to play with you, the screen will pop up…" they waited for a moment as Sai did as ordered, until a small window blinked into existence. "Ah," Hikaru scowled. "He declined – probably things you're a beginner and doesn't want to bother, the bastard. Okay, try another one."

Sai did. The second rejected his challenge as well, but the third, someone named _Hamu_, accepted. Sai jumped back a bit when the window changed into the nineteen-by-nineteen grid, standing upright right in front of him, with two windows on its right side. There was list of time, of moves made, of stones and territories captured there, and what seemed to be a chat window.

"Okay, now you Nigiri, there," Hikaru said, pointing. "Challenger gets to Nigiri on NetGo, though World Igo Net it's the other way around. Before you do, though, you can choose time limit, how long the moves take after, and the Komi. In NetGo it's standard of 5,5, but some play with 6 or 7."

"I think the standard settings are fine," Sai murmured, after checking them. Half an hour worth of time for each player seemed more than enough. With a nod to himself, he pressed the Nigiri button, and window popped up informing him that the opponent had the first move. "Aww," he murmured, pouting.

Then the game began, with the opponent placing down the first stone. Sai did the same, falling back to his standard, rather aged style which he often played against Hikaru's more rasher style. He got the feeling that his opponent didn't take him seriously at all, because the first twenty moves were placed down in space of two minutes, or less, and it took ten more before _Hamu_ realised that Sai had him pinned and trapped.

"Huh," Sai murmured, not sure what he felt when, after twenty more moves were exchanged, the opponent lost, his cluster's dead and his territories captured. "It seems… a bit odd, to play Go like this," he murmured, leaning back and eying the statistics – the program had counted the points and territories and he had won by nearly sixty moku. Even Hikaru could put up a better fight.

"Well, it's not like playing go normally, no," Hikaru agreed, leaning his chin to his palm and eyeing him sidelong. "But it's not bad, right? This way you can play other people except me without having to go anyplace. Right?"

"Maybe," Sai murmured, biting his lower lip thoughtfully. It hadn't felt like a game, not really, more like… mockery of a game. But still… it had been unmistakeably Go. "I suppose it's not bad."

"Yeah," Hikaru said and grinned, bouncing up in triumph. "Damn right it ain't. Now, I just need to get my folks to buy me a laptop too and then we can play in the evenings when I'm not even here."

"Maybe," Sai chuckled and then glanced at the screen. _Hamu_ was now challenging him and after a moment of thought, Sai accepted the challenge. "I don't know if it's entirely wise to be getting into this right now, though," he said, as he waited for his opponent to Nigiri. "I have my schedule full of school work, as should you."

"One game every now and then doesn't hurt anybody. Or anybody's studies – not yours anyway, girly boy," Hikaru said calmly, before skipping into the kitchen and dragging one of the kitchen chairs so that he could watch without having to crouch on the floor or stand behind Sai's shoulder. "Come on," he said, once he had sat down, and grinned wider. "Kick his ass."

"Hm. I might as well," Sai murmured, and set out to play the rematch with little bit more determination than he had shown in the first match.

After the game was done – it took less time this time around, as _Hamu_ seemed to figure out how things stood faster and forfeited early on – Sai stood up from the computer. "I'm getting something to drink – do you want anything?" he asked.

"Nah," Hikaru said, leaning forward and taking the mouse. "Hey not bad, _Hamu's_ a mid-rank player and you just squished him!" Sai shook his head without answering, and ventured into the kitchen instead – more to think, than to get anything. He still wasn't quite sure. It felt odd to play Go like that, against someone else than Hikaru. It felt a little bit like betrayal, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was betraying. Himself? His vow to not play had never been set in stone beyond the fact that he simply didn't _want_ to play. The fact that Hikaru had managed to pierce his way through that barrier so easily was a clear testament of its durability. But this? This was…

Except it wasn't, was it? In NetGo, there could be no cheating. The program didn't allow illegal moves, and the thing calculated the moku afterwards, so there was simply no room for cheating. Nor could there be any trickery or unhanded tactics that people could use when face to face, with real Goban between them. No intimidation, no sleaziness. Just… Go. And nothing but Go.

"_Hamu's_ talking to you!" Hikaru called from the living room. "He's asking how long you've been playing, I think – he's speaking in English. Do you want me to answer him?"

"In your English?" Sai asked, with smothered a soft chuckle. Then he thought about it. In the internet it would be just writing, talking to someone, and still so very anonymous but… "Would it be very rude to not say anything?" he asked.

"Probably, but it's the internet. Everybody's rude," Hikaru answered, laughing. "I played few games yesterday and I never talked to anybody either – though that was mostly because they all speak in English. You've got challenger, by the way. Oh, it's _fifty-ongs_, I've played against them… they beat me up, though, the bastard."

"_Fifty-ongs_?" Sai asked, taking a soda can from the fridge and returning to the living room. The computer screen was displaying the challenger from someone named _50ongs_ and as Sai sat down Hikaru leaned back to let him access the computer without needing to reach past him. "Were they good?"

"Better than me, but that's not saying much," Hikaru shrugged. "Beat them up for me?"

"What am I, your attach dog to be set against everyone who defeats you in Go? I'll be playing forever if that's the case," Sai chuckled, and accepted the challenge.

_50ongs_ was slightly more skilled than _Hamu_ and the one that challenged _sai_ afterwards, someone named _Garan_ was slightly above their level. By his fifth game in NetGo, Sai found himself warming up to the exercise, and the precise grid on the computer screen started to look more like a Goban, and less like a interactive drawing. It still didn't feel _quite_ right, but it didn't feel wholly wrong either. It felt more like a game, than anything else.

He had also gained himself a level, and was now a 1d. "Is that good, in terms of this site?" he asked thoughtfully.

"It's like first dan, so it's pretty good, yeah. I'm still in kyu ranks," Hikaru sighed. "I don't really get how the ranking thing works, but you just beat a 2 dan player in an even game, so that's something. 9d is the highest rank; I think there are less than ten people with that."

"Hmm," Sai hummed, thinking about it. So there were lot of strong people playing in the site, if the people he had been playing so far were around the first dan ranks, and yet there were those with much higher ranks, that sounded promising. The fact that there was a ranking system also caught his interest, though there was a twinge of nostalgic pain there as well. He couldn't help but remember that exam so long ago, and the world that might've been… the rank he might have now, if things had gone differently.

Shaking his head, he closed the computer with a firm hand. He needed to think about this NetGo thing a bit further, before he went further – decide whether it was worth it. He had so many things to do, school, music… and he didn't want to get into the NetGo only to realise somewhere along the way, months from now, that he had been wasting his time in a useless hobby that brought him nothing but pain.

Though there was one thing he rather liked. The players seemed to be from all around the world, if the country codes that were listed beside their names and ranks. If NetGo could be played all around the world, from everywhere, and anyone could play against anyone, then… one major worry he had about his plans of studying abroad was soothed. With NetGo, he _could_ play against Hikaru, even if they had the whole world between them. He liked _that_, if nothing else.

"Do you think you will be using NetGo to play?" Sai asked, turning to Hikaru.

"Sometimes, yeah. Especially if my folks buy me a computer," Hikaru nodded and grinned. "I ought to give me a better chance of improving and catching up on you."

Sai smiled. "I wouldn't mind that," he said, and glanced at the closed computer. "I'll give it a chance, I think," he decided.

"Excellent," Hikaru said, rubbing his hands together. "Now that that's over, you need to help me come up with a suitable explanation to Mom as to why quitting gymnastics and Kendo is a good idea."

Sai blinked, turning to him. "You want to quit Kendo and gymnastics? Why?"

"They take too much time and I wouldn't mind sleeping a little longer every now and then. And I don't really need them, with the other lessons I've got," Hikaru shrugged before giving him a suspicious look. "Let me guess, you're going to now tell me why quitting them is a bad idea."

"Well. No, not really. Kendo, I can understand, it won't help you as much as the other things. Gymnastics, though… if I were you, I would continue those. You might've gained the right skills for now, but with everything physical you need to maintain your skills, or they will deteriorate," Sai said thoughtfully, turning around in his seat so that he could face Hikaru fully. "You need to keep on practicing to maintain stamina and strength, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. But I figured I could do that at the gym where the climbing lessons are," Hikaru said, folding his arms. "They have better stuff there, and I'm already lifting weights and whatnot there, so moving my flip out sessions there wouldn't be that big of a thing."

"Your… flip out sessions?" Sai asked, amused.

"Well, that's what it is, for the most part. Flipping around," Hikaru said, grinning. "Besides they got trainers attending to the people there all the time, better ones than our school PE teacher. They're the ones who got me to lifting weights too – it helps with the climbing," he added, striking half a pose and patting his bicep, grinning.

"True," the elder teen said. "Well, it's your training, if you think you can do it like that, then do it. I think you're starting to have a better concept of what you need to do than I, at this point."

"Yeah, well, I'm still not as good at convincing the folks as you are," Hikaru said, shrugging. "So if you have any pointers about what I should say to Mom about that, I'm all ears."

x

Hikaru wasn't too surprised that Sai, once he started to play NetGo, rouse in ranks at neck breaking speed. After mere week of playing, _sai_ was already 5d in rank, and by the second week, he was 8d. And by that time, everyone in the site was talking about him. Hikaru knew that Sai himself didn't really get into the site, and only visited it every now and then when ever he had bit of free time to play a game or two, but Hikaru found himself enjoying the behind-Goban aspect of NetGo and the other sites. That is to say, the forums and chat rooms.

_"Who the hell is that guy?"_ was the question of the day, when Sai gained his 8d rank, and the discussions that followed were fascinating. And a bit sad. At first most in the NetGo site thought that _sai_ might be a pro player, like _Seiji_ and few others who popped in and out of the sites every now and then to play a game, mostly against other pro players. The fact that _sai_ was Japanese at first supported the theory, but the fact that _sai_ played at an odd schedule, and sometimes on days when important games were going on in the Association, defused that theory. And started a whole lot of others.

_"Maybe he's a retired pro?"_ someone thought. _"He might be an insei?"_ someone else suggested. Few people were even wondering if he might have played in the amateur tournaments and maybe won some. _sai'_s style was analyzed and examined and questioned and Honinbo Shuusaku popped up quite often in the chats and threads after that. After a while, Hikaru started seeing people posting pieces and _sai_'s opening moves, with explanations about their history and stuff like that. The fact that _sai_ favoured komoku openings was soon widely known fact and whole threads were dedicated to quest of figuring out the best counter moves.

Everyone wanted to talk to _sai_. And _sai_ only sped the rumour mill along by never doing so. It was rather hilarious to watch the go enthusiasts tearing themselves into bits, trying to figure it out.

By the time Hikaru had managed to squirm himself out of Kendo and gymnastics – despite all the arguments and few threats from the coach and the kendo captain, both who promised that he'd never amount to anything by quitting, yadda yadda yadda – _sai_ dealt the rumour mill the finishing blow and became a 9d.

"You know, you have quite the fan base in NetGo," Hikaru said one day, when Sai was visiting him rather than the other way around. They were building a habit of sitting by computers now, and true to form they were both sitting on Hikaru's bed, with Hikaru's new laptop balanced half on Hikaru's and half on Sai's knee. "Have you even checked out the forums yet?"

"I glanced at them once," Sai answered with an awkward look and shook his head. "I don't think I will do so again. It was… a bit overwhelming."

"I just bet it was," Hikaru snorted, while flicking open the rankings list. Sai was the seventh 9d in the list. "Have you played _Seiji_ yet?"

"Not yet – I don't think I have ever seen him online," Sai mused, leaning forward a bit. "What rank are you now?"

"First dan," Hikaru said proudly. "Beat _50ongs_ yesterday, and _shiny_ just this morning."

"Congratulations," the elder teen said with a smile.

"Thanks. Why haven't you accepted any of my challenges, by the way?" Hikaru asked, lifting his eyebrows a bit. "I must've sent something like a dozen the other day."

"Oh, did you? I get so many that I have to turn town almost all of them now," Sai admitted and sighed. "Every time I log in, it takes more and more time to get to the actual game, because of all the challenges. Is there a way to make it so that I automatically turn them all down, and can challenge whoever I choose without being swamped?"

"Not in NetGo, but I think you can do that in World Igo Net, though the site is more confusing," Hikaru mused. While Sai was only on NetGo, Hikaru had already registered in all three and was playing in all three – though mostly in NetGo, because that was where _sai_ was, and the user base was bigger. World Igo Net was a bit more elite, and had mostly just Asian users. "Do you want to try it?"

"Sure, why not?" Sai answered, and Hikaru quickly helped him register into the site, already anticipating the splash to follow. There was talk about _sai_ in the World Igo Net too, even if not as much as in NetGo. To have _sai_ starting to play at World Igo Net… oh, he could already hear the rumour mill, buzzing.

"The ranking system in World Igo Net is a bit different," Hikaru said, as _sai_ logged in. "It'll probably take you a bit longer to get to higher ranks here."

"That's alright," Sai answered. "Now, where can I make it so that people won't challenge me?"

Hikaru showed him, and soon Sai was looking through a selection of players, and challenging one of them. Like NetGo, the first one he challenged declined, probably not having heard of _sai_ yet, but the second one, _zelda_, was quick to accept.

Sometimes Hikaru really wished he could see the faces of the people _sai_ played, just to see the shock in the faces of those playing him the first time, and frustration on the faces of those who had played him, and lost over and over again. After getting beaten at Sai's hands so many times, it gave Hikaru no small amount of glee, to have so many people sharing the fate.

There was something else, though. Something about Sai had changed, just a little, after he had started playing. After the tentative first days, Sai had gotten a certain sort of look to his face, first surprise and then enjoyment, and after that… resolve. No, that wasn't quite right. _Purpose_. Before, when ever Sai had touched a Goban or spoken of Go, there had been an odd sort of defeat there, or guilt, or _something_ that couldn't be name, but which was always there. Like reluctance, but not quite. Now that was gone, and Sai didn't seem so against the thing he so obviously loved.

_'Weird overly complicated Go maniac,'_ Hikaru thought fondly, watching Sai's face as he cautiously manipulated the touch-pad mouse, frowning first in concentration and then blinking with surprise, eyebrows coming up as _zelda_ made a move he hadn't been expecting. There was joy there, just a bit, in Sai's eyes. The same sort of delight that Hikaru sometimes saw when Sai played music – _rare_ delight.

"What?" Sai asked, noticing him staring.

"Nothing," Hikaru answered, grinning as he threw an arm around Sai's shoulder, fingers tangling into the long bangs and tugging slightly. "You're just a girly Go maniac," he said. He wasn't sure why it made him so happy to see Sai playing Go in the internet, but it did. He'd eat his shorts – even the ones he wore at gym – before letting it show, though.

x

"Well, you're a muscle head grunt," Sai answered with a sniff, shifting a bit under the weigh of Hikaru's arm. It was hard to remember sometimes how small Hikaru had been when they had met, year or so ago, especially when he was under the younger teen's rather more defined arm like this. Hikaru had been growing in bounds and leaps over the summer, and it showed. How big he'd be in year, in two?

Sai swallowed dryly, turning his attention back to the screen where the opponent had made his move, and it was now his turn. "How are things going in your classes, anyway?" he asked. Hikaru had had a climbing session earlier that day, and would have acting lesson at the agency tomorrow, he knew as much, but with this internet thing they hadn't been talking about anything else much, lately.

"It's good, it's good," Hikaru said. "I'm getting better with the acting stuff too, I think. At least people aren't complaining as much anymore – though the martial arts and gym are still easier. Most trouble I have is with is at school, but I can handle that."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Maths, history and whatnot. I'm getting better with English, though, playing around in the internet helps, I think," Hikaru shrugged. "And the other stuff isn't that hard. Akari is helping me."

Sai nodded, though he made a mental note to look into Hikaru's grades when the opportunity presented itself. He was busy with his own studies – so busy, that he had decided not to take part in a music competition which would start in a week or so – but he wasn't so busy that he couldn't take a look at Hikaru's studies.

"How about you? How is your quest to graduate early going?" Hikaru asked, smiling.

"It's going well," Sai answered honestly. And it was – the teachers were rushing him through their subjects with great determination, though not without making sure to pound every small fact into his head along the way. He hated the fact that that it was mostly because his uncle was in the board of governors, but that didn't stop him from taking full advantage of it. It was rather enjoyable to be able to push himself to his limits and beyond them, too, and to realise how much he could really do when he put his mind to it. He had known he was smart, but nowadays… he felt it too.

Hikaru was, unknowingly, his motivation for that, for most of Sai's efforts now. Of course, Sai wanted to learn, wanted to graduate, and wanted to get into a good university sooner rather than later but de doubted he would've bothered to go such lengths for it without seeing the way Hikaru pushed himself to achieve his goals. Hikaru was pretty inspiring, in more ways than one.

"I will have less time for NetGo soon, however," Sai mused thoughtfully. "Soon I will be having exams, and won't have time for anything but studying."

"That'll baffle the people on the site something fierce I bet. And maybe make few of them cry, as they lose their chance of having a go at you," Hikaru murmured with a grin while eyeing the game Sai was playing, and squeezed the elder teen's shoulders slightly. "But you do what you got to do, girly boy. I'm rooting for ya."

"Good to know," Sai chuckled, leaning into Hikaru a bit, while placing his move on the virtual Goban.

They sat in silence, until the game finished and Sai's opponent resigned. With the outlay of the new site figured out and registration made, Sai didn't feel like playing in the internet when there was a real, physical Goban at hand – and after playing so many strangers, he wanted to play Hikaru, whose style was as familiar as his own. "Let's play, Hikaru," he said, lifting his head from where he had been resting it, on Hikaru's shoulder.

"Sure," the younger teen said, closing the laptop and hopping up. He was quick to lift the Goban to the middle of the room, throwing the pillows at Sai to lay on the floor while he lifted the stone bowls. Soon after, they were sitting down, with Hikaru taking the black and Sai the white.

After a while, Sai frowned slightly. Hikaru's go was still as familiar as ever, but there was a change in the game. From both ends. At first he couldn't put his finger onto what it was, but he could still sense it there, a slight shift. "Hikaru? How many games have you played in the net?" he asked thoughtfully.

"How many? I don't know. Little under couple of hundred?" Hikaru more asked than stated, and shrugged his shoulders when Sai snapped his eyes up with surprise. "What? I play speed Go on the net, so the games don't usually last all that long."

"You've improved," Sai said, looking down to the game forming between them. He hadn't played near as many games as couple of hundred, but he had played a quite a bit too. And it was making a difference. It was hard to notice it at first, because Hikaru had improved too, but… so had Sai himself. Since Hikaru had brought NetGo to them, they had both grown.

It was both gratifying and a bit sad. They had improved and would most likely continue on improving the more they played. But to what end?

_'To play a better game against each other,'_ he decides as he placed down another white stone and leaning back to wait Hikaru's counter move. _'Need it be anything more than that?'_

Neither of them would play professionally. Though who knew, Hikaru might one day take place in amateur tournaments, having none of the hang-ups that still bothered Sai. Neither of them would be pro, not as far as he could see the future now. But… no one ever said that that was all there was to Go. They could play each other. They _would_ play each other.

After a moment, Sai smiled. He didn't need more than that. Past and future and Go association and professionals be damned – he didn't need more than Hikaru and his Go. And in a way Go was sweeter being only a beloved hobby, a sweet side-quest in their lives. To make it goal of their lives would've made it ruthless, competitive, mean, would've made them fight harder for improvement. Like this it was more… pleasant.

The possibility that one day Hikaru would grow enough to challenge him, to beat him, was goal enough.

"What are you thinking now?" Hikaru asked, eyeing him worriedly.

"Go," Sai said, and tapped his lips with his fingertips, still smiling. "At the rate you're going, we might have an even game few years from now, you know."

"Few years. Way to bring me down, girly boy," Hikaru sighed, hanging his head a bit. Then he lifted his head again, frowning a bit. "Though if you're thinking of going to study abroad, how many years would _few years_ be?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. "If you get there, how many years will you be away anyway?"

"I don't know yet. Few years," Sai answered, shrugging his shoulders. That depended entirely on what school he would get into, what sort teachers and curriculum the school would have, how his studies would go and what would be the best goal. Bachelor, master, doctorate... he was still keeping his options open as far as that went.

"Few years," Hikaru repeated, frowning a bit and then shaking his head. "Well, I'll have a chance to practice more while you're away if nothing else," he murmured, turning his attention to the game.

Sai nodded, smiling a little wider. Hikaru hadn't denied it.

Years from now, they'd still be playing Go.

xx

Wheee...

Also I wouldn't expect updates to Trial and Error anytime soon. With Determination it's easy to pick up where I left off because it's pretty short and simple story. Trial and Error is bit more complex, so it's bit harder to start again.

My apologies for possible grammar errors


	14. To Prepare

**XIV chapter**

**To Prepare**

Hikaru was bored. Beyond bored. Which was rather strange, since it felt like he hadn't had a single free moment all day. They had had to cancel the acting lessons in the manager agency in the previous day, and move them to that day – so he had had first martial arts almost right after school, and then had almost missed the acting lesson entirely, it being bit further away, forcing him to take the train to get there.

But he was bored. Well. Maybe bored wasn't the right word – he was irritated and oddly… well. He had gotten used to certain sort of schedule, which consisted of school, his own training workout alone and with Akari, extra lessons here and there, and seeing Sai. And one part of his schedule was missing, namely Sai who was either studying for exams, or doing those exams, and had been all week now – and would be for the following week as well. Hikaru understood, sure, and had nodded in all understanding when Sai had asked not to be bothered for a while, but… it felt _strange_.

"You okay there, Shindo-kun?" a voice asked, and Hikaru looked up from the script he had not really been reading at all. It was the teacher, a former actor by the name of Masaki Satou, who had came to stand almost right in front of him without him noticing. While he blinked, wondering when she had came over, the woman sighed, resting her hands at her hips. "I know it's a bit tiring today – you had other lessons before this, right? But please, do try to pay some attention."

"Sorry, sensei. I'm just distracted," Hikaru sighed and straightened his back, clanging down to the script. He couldn't remember what it was about anymore – he and the other students were given scripts to study and recite every lesson, and this time he hadn't been paying much attention. "Uh…" he blinked, frowning at the script. It looked weird – not much like the scenes they usually acted out.

Satou chuckled softly and sat on the bench beside him. "You weren't paying attention at all, were you?" she asked, and took the script, leafing it to the first page. "It's a script for a clothes commercial – for sports clothing. Most the students here are about the right age for it, and it seemed like a good place to start, so I've arranged that you all get a chance in the auditions," She explained, while pointing the first lines of the script. "It might be especially good for you, since you're pretty sporty."

"Uh," Hikaru blinked. How had he missed _that_? "You do know that I'm aiming to become a stuntman, not an actor?" he asked. "Yes, I know – but even stuntmen have to start from somewhere," Satou said. "And I know a lot of stuntmen who also act. You shouldn't reject the idea off hand – and it's likely to help you along with your intended career, to get some proper acting experience."

Hikaru frowned, not answering as he looked at the script. Sure, he was getting better with the acting thing – it didn't feel like something stupid anymore either, and sometimes he could really get into it. But it was just means to end to him, right now, and he didn't really want to _act_ as much as he wanted the talent to use in some other things.

"Here's the thing, Shindo-kun," the teacher said, patting his shoulder. "You have pretty interesting skill set, when you get down to it. Martial arts and gymnastics, right? And some other things too, I bet. Useful for a stuntman, absolutely, but they could make you a great actor as well. You have nice, expressive face and splendid body language when you really get going, and when you're not too self conscious, you can really get into your character. With little more work, you'd probably make a great actor. And, if we we're honest about it, being an actor is safer."

Hikaru gave her a look. "If I wanted to be _safe_, do you think I wanted to be a stuntman?" he asked blankly, making her chuckle.

"I suppose that is true," she mused. "But you should still give it a thought. Acting is a good way to get started, if nothing else."

"But it's not what I want," Hikaru said, shaking his head, but… he had given it some thought. Sai had taught him way too well, and he often found himself considering things which didn't even interest him, like using the skills he was learning in other things. Getting into the gig of being a stuntman could take him a long while – stuntmen tended to be highly specialised, and certain stuntmen worked certain jobs, driving, fighting, getting blown up and set on fire, and whatever. He didn't know what his speciality was, as he hadn't gotten the chance to try anything.

Actors on other hand… well in the start of things; they had it a bit easier. Of course the whole industry was damned hard to get to – hundreds tried and only one got chosen, that sort of thing. But unlike stuntmen, actors could just go into whatever auditions that caught their fancy and have a try, and start building their portfolio and CV that way… Stuntmen couldn't really audition for anything before they had been tried and tested and gone through hell to get some sort of expertise.

Scratching the back of his head, Hikaru looked down to the script. "Sports clothing, huh?" he asked.

"Yes. It's just a fifty second piece, all in all," Satou said, leaning forward. "Right now what they have in mind is a group of kids – or teens, or young adults, whichever suits the spot best – skylarking around Tokyo. Do you know what parkour is? Or free running?"

"Yeah, sort of," Hikaru said, glancing up. "That's what they want?" he asked, just to be sure. "It's mostly just running around in some back alleys and whatnot, doing tricks, right? Why do you need a script for that?"

"Because there is a bit of a plot," the teacher said, chuckling, and together they went through the script. Apparently there was a ninja theme to the parkour commercial, with white ninjas versus black ninjas and the goal of the conflict were some high fashion sports gear. Hikaru couldn't help but snort at that, though he had to admit that it might be pretty interesting too.

"We have good five here who do gymnastics on the side, including you," the teacher said while standing up. "That is why I thought this might be a good opportunity to you guys. Give it a thought, would you? Talk it over with your parents."

"Yeah. I think I will," Hikaru said, and he actually meant it. With a smile and a nod, Satou moved away from him, clapping her hands and calling the session closed, telling the students to study the script and figure out how they'd portray some of the characters in the script and next time, they'd have a go at the dialogue and maybe some of the "fight" scenes.

Soon after, Hikaru was heading towards the train station, still thinking about the script, the commercial, acting and doing stunts. He hadn't considered trying to start with any of it just yet – he was still in school, still learning, only _fourteen_ for god's sake, but… some actors started young. And he was growing to be a pretty big fourteen year old, what with all his training and so forth, and most people nowadays mistook him for someone a bit older. And, sadly enough, the acting lessons had already nailed the importance of building a portfolio into his head. Starting with it sooner rather than later… well, that if nothing else appealed to him.

"Parkour, huh," he murmured, lifting the strap of his shoulder bag a bit higher and then sighing. He wanted to talk about it with Sai, but he couldn't, not unless he wanted to interrupt Sai's studies and he knew better than to do that, especially since Sai was too busy to even play NetGo. Sighing again, he shook his head and looked around, wondering if there might be a convenience store anywhere near - he could use a soda.

There wasn't one, and instead his eyes landed on a sign advocating a Go-salon. Heart of Stone was emblazoned onto it, with image of grid and some go stones below it – though how Hikaru even saw it, he wasn't sure, it was almost completely covered by a sign of a love-hotel, another of a bar, of a dentist's office and hair salon. Snorting at himself, Hikaru eyed the sign for a moment, wondering when Sai had turned him into such a Go player that his eyes first noticed the Go salon, and only after the rather gaudy sign of the love hotel.

After a moment of thought, he decided to have a try at it. With Sai busy, he hadn't had the chance to play on an actual Goban for days, and he rather missed the familiar clicking of slate and shell against real wood. NetGo was fun, in its own way, but… nothing beat the real thing.

Heart of Stone was neat enough place, not quite as fancy as the place where Hikaru had learned, the one owned by the Toyas, though thankfully not as smoky and full of ancient geezers as the place where his grandfather frequented. This place had mostly middle aged men, most of whom were chatting quietly as they played, instead of cackling like Heiachi's friends.

"You want to play, kid?" a man behind the counter – which looked more like counter of a café than that of a go-salon, with all sort of snacks and such displayed there – asked, looking at Hikaru with some interest.

"Yeah, that'd be cool. How much is it?" Hikaru asked, while digging through his pockets and producing some yen coins. After paying the admission fee, he looked around with some interest, trying to find someone who wasn't playing.

"Come here kid, I'll play ya," one of the men called, waving him over. "You might want a handicap though."

"You mean _you_ might want a handicap," Hikaru snorted, but walked over, leaving his bag to the floor before sitting down on the other end of the Goban. It was a bit strange to be facing someone who wasn't Sai on a Go board, but… it wasn't bad. And at least this guy wasn't a girly weirdo, judging by the looks of him. That was always a plus.

"Hmph. Big words from a little brat," the man across the board said. "We'll see about who needs handicap."

"Yep, and it'll be you. Come on, old man. Nigiri," Hikaru said, and with a harrumph the man complied. Soon after, they were playing.

It was very different, playing like this. He was used to playing only Sai with a real Goban, and Sai was so far superior to him in style, that he was always in way over his head. In the net, though, he mostly played those around his own level, as people tended to challenger those only within level or two of their own, unless they were really good and trying to make their way quickly to the top, like Sai. Here though, with a real board, it took Hikaru a moment to adjust his thinking – at first he automatically played like he was facing Sai, like he was fighting against a mountain and… it turned out to be rather unnecessary.

"Oops," Hikaru murmured after some twenty minutes, eying the board. It wasn't that he was winning – well, he was, probably – but that he was all over the place. Only tactic that tended to work on Sai was to be as seemingly random as possible, so Hikaru tended to employ the tactic of defending and attacking at random intervals, and doing so at as strangely as possible, in hopes of confusing Sai enough to snatch up some territory. It never really worked and Sai tended to catch him no matter how many sides he tried to come from, but the further Hikaru took it, the longer the games lasted.

With this opponent though the tactic was unnecessary, and in the end he had only ended up only spreading himself thin.

"What the hell are you doing?" the man across the board asked. "Are you messing with me?"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just used to playing a really annoying opponent," Hikaru said with a sheepish grimace. "I'm still beating you, though."

"Tch. You're not even playing properly," the man harrumphed. "Another game, and play seriously this time!"

"Alright, alright," Hikaru said, and they cleared the board before starting another game, this time with Hikaru refitting his thoughts and playing like he played NetGo – with little less wild, obscure tactics. With the game mode a little more level, he had a better chance at taking a look at his opponent's Joseki and after a moment he had to admit that there might've been something to the man's offer of handicap. Not that _Hikaru_ needed it, but someone might've, sure. Hikaru had played – and lost to – better opponents on the net, but…

"You're not bad, old man," he said, while leaning in to examine one cluster closely, trying to figure out a way to kill it.

"Hah. Regretting not taking the handicap now?" the man asked, folding his arms imperiously.

"Nope," Hikaru answered, taking a stone and placing it down. _'Take the bait, take the bait, take the bait,'_ he thought and nearly jumped when the man moved to cut him off, letting him connect the stone from other side – and kill the cluster. "Hah," Hikaru said, folding his arms in return. "Beat that, old man."

"Not bad," the man admitted grudgingly, and the came continued. In the end Hikaru won by four and half moku, and while they cleared the board, Hikaru had to laugh a bit at that internally. Oh, how far he had came since meeting Sai – all the way to playing strange geezers in a go salon. Geez.

"Not bad at all," his opponent mused. "What's your name, brat? I'm Kawai."

"Shindo Hikaru," Hikaru said, making a loose salute while closing the stone bowl.

"You want another game?"

"Nah, not right now – I just wanted to play a couple of games on actual Goban, before heading home," Hikaru admitted, glancing around. "Though I might come back, since this place is sort of on my way," he said thoughtfully. It was different, playing Go like this than playing on the net, and he rather liked it. And every game he played was one more game towards achieving the same skill as Sai had and he wasn't beyond using each and every opportunity to improve there.

"I'll see you then for a rematch," Kawai said, nodding while peeling off the plastic wrapping on his pack of cigarettes.

"Yeah, you and your handicap stones," Hikaru snorted, and ducked to avoid the crumbled plastic thrown at his way. Snatching his bag, he jumped to his feet and with a wave made to leave, hearing some of the men talking behind him, asking Kawai how the game had gone.

"You lost? Not bad that kid then?"

"You think he's an insei, like the others?"

"Who knows…"

x

"Mom, what would you think if I tried to get into a commercial?" Hikaru asked later on that day, while idling around in the living room. The television was on, and there were commercials playing.

"What, like in television?" Mitsuko asked, coming to look at him from the kitchen where she was baking. She blinked as Hikaru nodded, and for a moment didn't seem to know what to say. "Um… I thought you wanted to be a stuntman, not an actor."

"I did – I _do_," Hikaru nodded, leaning his head back. "But the teacher at my lessons – the fancy pants ones – arranged so that the entire class has a shot at the auditions for this sports clothing commercial. And I think she thinks some of us have a real chance at getting into it."

"And… you want to get in?" Mitsuko asked, as if to be sure.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe?" Hikaru asked and sighed. "I don't really care about acting, but I kind of like the script. And it seems like it could be fun." He titled his head so that he could see her from the corner of his eyes. "I'll probably need your and dad's permission and whatnot, though, since I'm fourteen – and some paper work would need to be made and stuff."

"Oh. Well…" Mitsuko frowned. "I don't know Hikaru. The acting lessons are one thing, and the martial arts and the rest, but being in a commercial? Wouldn't that be… you _are_ only fourteen, and isn't it a bit too early for you to start working?"

"There are a lot of kid actors, you know," Hikaru said with a snort, and turned around in the chair completely, so that he could face her. "I would kind of like to try – see what it's really like, you know? It ought to help me prepare a little better for the rest of it. And I could start building my portfolio. Well, granted that I get in and I might not, of course…"

"Portfolio?" his mother asked, sounding helplessly lost. "Hikaru, you're still in _school_."

"Yeah, so?" Hikaru asked and shrugged. "It would be just one job and I doubt it would even take that long to complete. I mean, it's only minute long piece all together if even that, so it can't take that long to film. Even if it would take place in school time, I could catch up."

Mitsuko stared at him for a moment, looking hesitant and conflicted. "I'll… I'll talk about it with your father," she said after a moment.

"Talk with him before my next session, will you?" Hikaru asked. "I will probably need my answer straight by then."

"Alright, I'll do that," she sighed and shook her head. "You've been growing so fast lately, Hikaru," she said then. "What happened? Just little while ago you were this… you were just lazing around, and now this? What _happened_?"

"You introduced me to Sai," Hikaru answered, smiling.

"Yeah, I suppose I did," she murmured, sighing with a smile before shaking her head and heading back to the kitchen.

In the end, Hikaru got his permission, and more. It helped that his father was bit of a workaholic and whole heartedly approved Hikaru's determination to succeed in his chosen field – he not only approved it, but urged Hikaru on as much as he could, being so busy and having absolutely no understanding what so ever over any part of "showbiz" as he called Hikaru's plans for future. But still, Shindo Masao not just wrote and signed an approval paper, but he also took Hikaru to a bank and actually opened an account for him – just in case Hikaru got in, and got paid for it.

"Of course, whether you get in or not, or get paid or not, the account isn't a toy and most of what you earn will be saved for future," Masao said, after Hikaru had signed the papers and gotten his new shiny bank card. "After Christmas, I will start transferring your allowance straight to your account, but remember that despite that, there will be a limit to how money you can withdraw per month."

"Alright. What ever you say, dad," Hikaru agreed, grinning widely before frowning. "I'm going to need a _wallet_ for this thing," he muttered then, making his father laugh.

After that he was, even better yet, his father took him to get something else. This one was, for Hikaru, even better than the bank – it was a store which sold cell phones. "Oh my god, you are the best dad ever," Hikaru said, eying the selection with wide eyes, hair's with from salivating. Akari had had a mobile for ages and of course Sai had one too, and now _he'd_ get his own. Best day _ever_.

"I have my moments," Masao said modestly. "A working man ought to have a phone. Mind you, you won't get anything expensive, not after the laptop and not for your first phone. Just something usable."

Something usable ended up being the same model Akari had – the sort with a camera and email function and everything, though Hikaru was pretty sure he only got that one because of a plan which allowed the phone to be paid in instalments. He also had a limit to how many messages and calls he could make, and god help him if he would go over it, but he didn't much care for because _he had his own cell phone._

The acquisition of a phone and creation of his own bank account couldn't have happened at a better moment, either. The next session at the agency's acting lessons, the teacher handed out forms for them to fill in about the auditions – to which Hikaru was asked to include his phone and bank account number, along with some other details he wouldn't have known, if his father hadn't spent the previous day explaining them.

"Keep those forms in good condition, you will need to hand them over once the auditions commence," Satou sensei said, after they had spent the time filling the forms out. "Also, I will need permission forms from the parents of those of you who are still under age, and for you to take these forms home, for your parents to study," she added, handing out some extra forms to Hikaru and the others in the classes, who weren't yet considered adults. "There are some details about employment of child actors your families ought to know. Now, let's have a look at what you've come up with, as far as the script goes."

That session was entirely spent on rehearsing the commercial script and figuring out the moves of parkour. Hikaru and those in the classes who practiced sports had a bit better luck with it than those who didn't, but they had a trainer present that day, who gave them tips. Parkour wasn't Hikaru's idea of neither sports nor training – it was just jumping around and shimmying past odd obstacles as far as he could tell and bit strange overall – but it was interesting in its own right. And it was definitely fun, to put his gymnastics and martial arts finally to use.

He was the best at it in the entire class, if he so said himself.

"Alright, good, that's about enough for today," Satou said after two hours spent getting sweaty and breathless in the awkward obstacle course. "The auditions are this weekend – if you choose to come, we will meet here at ten a.m., and then commence to the actual site. I know you probably feel like you ought to doll yourself up, but don't. Wear something practical and if you have to put on makeup, don't over do it. And _don't_ be late."

With that, rather grimly spoken order, the session for that day was over and they were dismissed. While the other students moaned about aching wrists and banged thighs, Hikaru absently wiped some of the sweat off his neck before digging up his cell phone.

_"Will audition for tv commercial this Saturday. Blaming you. Hope our studies are going well. Hikaru,"_ he wrote, and send to Sai.

_"TV commercial? What? And when did you get a phone, Hikaru?"_ Sai answered back, and grinning Hikaru headed out, already writing a reply.

He hadn't really been intending to go to the Go salon that time – he wanted to take the paperwork home and go over it with his mom or, preferably, with his dad who probably understood it better. But just as he sent his last message to Sai – that he had to do something to stop being so bored while Sai was all locked up, educating himself – something caught his attention. There were two teens just going into through the door that led to the Heart of Stone and one of them looked oddly familiar.

_"Well, I will be rooting for you, and make sure to let me know how it goes! Good luck!"_ Sai sent back to him while Hikaru tried to remember where he had seen the elder teen before. Somewhere, but… where? In one of the classes? Probably not. Was he going to the Go salon?

"Oh, right," Hikaru murmured, pushing the phone to his pocket. "At the beach, the, um… insei, right."

With that figured out, he turned to follow them, interested to see if they were really going to the Heart of Stone and why. One of them at least was an insei, so why go to a Go salon?

Unable to help himself, he followed. The trip down to the Heart of stone wasn't long, but the elder teens he had seen were already at Gobans by the time he got there, with a bit of a crowd around them.

"Oh, it's you again," a familiar voice said, and just before Hikaru saw Kawai-san, he felt a hand descending over his hair, ruffling for all it's worth. "Hey there, brat. You with the insei?"

"Stop it! And no, I'm not, I'm just on my way to home," Hikaru snapped, trying to squirm away from under the overly enthusiastic hand – god, he couldn't even remember when the last time someone had just tried to do that to him, not to mention about succeeding. "I'll bite your hand off!"

"Tch, I'm so scared," Kawai grinned, but removed his hand as some of the people watching the newcomers play hissed at them to be quiet, that they were watching the game. "If you're not with the insei, though…" Kawai trailed away.

"I'm not," Hikaru answered, quickly running a hand over his hair to get it back to its natural state. Harrumphing, he glared at the bearded man. "They come here often?"

"They came by every now and again around summer, and few times since then – apparently they go from salon to salon, challenging the best players there," Kawai said, folding his arms and scowling. "I would've played but my shift starts in ten minutes."

"Oh, you're not an unemployed bum then?" Hikaru said and had to quickly duck to avoid being grabbed at again. "Sheesh, quit it already – I want to see the game."

"Then stop making smart ass comments, you brat!"

Kawai did let him get away that time, though, and quickly Hikaru shifted forward to see the games being played. Though he hadn't bothered to see how good the other people in Heart of Stone were during his last visit, he could quickly tell that they weren't anything to sneeze at – nowhere near Sai's skills, not in a million years, but definitely not beginners either.

The insei, granted that they were both insei, were beating them up, though. Hikaru had to lean forward a bit and spent a moment reading the games back – they hadn't played much yet, but enough for the difference in skills to be evident. The customers of the go-salon had gotten handicaps, and probably still didn't stand a chance.

_'I wonder how well I'd fare against them,_ Hikaru mused, and then frowned. Okay, wanting to play Go was one thing, even wanting to get better at it was just something to blame Sai for, but this? Really, when had he started to care so much about how good or bad he was, when had he started getting so damned… curious?

_'Probably around the same time I started playing NetGo,'_ Hikaru thought, folding his arms. It had been a while now. _'Geez. Girly boy's turned me into a Go playing weirdo. When did that happen, seriously?'_

As he contemplated over what sort of revenge he'd be able to extract from Sai – there'd be hair pulling, if nothing else – Kawai left, muttering curses, and the game continued. The customers of Heart of Stone put up one hell of a fight, but the insei beat them pretty soundly. It still took an effort though, because the elder one sighed audibly in relief after the territories were counted, and the younger one actually pumped a fist in air with triumph.

"Alright! No playing admission fee this time either. Awesome!" he said, and abruptly Hikaru remembered his name. It was Waya… probably. Wa-something at any rate.

"Man., I thought I had him that time," Waya's opponent said and sighing cleared the board. "You want to try playing him, Endo-san? With three stones, you might have a chance."

"I wanna play him," Hikaru said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "What?" he asked when the elder customers frowned at him. "You guys will just need handicaps and end up getting beat regardless. I might actually have a decent chance."

"Big words from a little brat," one of the customers said.

"Wait, didn't he beat Kawai-san?"

While the men muttered, Waya looked up at Hikaru with a frown. "Don't I know you?" he asked.

"We met at a beach once. Played volley ball," Hikaru answered, while pushing himself forward and taking the vacated seat in front of the insei. "It's Shindo," he added. "Waya, right?"

"Yeah. Wait, you and that other guy were playing Go on the sand, right?" Waya asked and narrowed his eyes. "I remember that – and I remember that you _sucked_. I don't want to play you."

"That was months ago, and besides we weren't even playing seriously that time – and it was a damned tiny grid too," Hikaru said, narrowing his eyes. "I'll beat you up," he then said. "Bet you thousand yen, I'll beat you up."

"Hmph, I'd like to see you try," the insei said, but there was a spark of interest in his eyes, even as his companion sighed mournfully and ran an exasperated hand over his face. "But I'll take you on. Thousand yen on the table, now, and then we'll play."

"You too," Hikaru said, while digging out his wallet. Soon after, he slapped a mostly crisp bill onto the table, and Waya slapped another over it. Hikaru had intended to save the money until Sai was out of his education induced exclusion to take him out for some ramen, but he'd sacrifice that opportunity to wipe the look from Waya's face, definitely.

"Nigiri," Hikaru demanded, and after the stones had been counted, the black went to Waya and the game begun.

They begun with a rush of moves, which for a moment made the game seem like highly enthusiastic speed go. But after a while, Waya seemed to reconsider that tactic, and Hikaru too was forced to slow down as he found his moves met by a skill which very nearly matched his own. After that the moves took longer, and Hikaru found himself thinking fast and hard between them, the way he rarely did in NetGo, but always had to do against Sai.

Waya had _nothing_ on Sai, but he was definitely better than Kawai, and more experienced than most of whom Hikaru played in the net. There was a quality to him that the people in NetGo lacked, something Hikaru had so far only seen in Sai's Go. A seriousness that went beyond the game, a seriousness which added a sharper, clearer quality to his game. Waya played like it wasn't a game, just the way Sai did – like it was something bigger.

Hikaru frowned, pausing to consider his opponent while around them their spectators had all gone quiet. So, this was what those wanting to be pro were like. It was… different. Not unpleasantly so but it somehow… there was something about it Hikaru didn't like. Go was a game to him, just a game, and he _liked_ it like that. It wasn't game to Waya and that was somehow _uncomfortable_. Even Sai, in all his seriousness, didn't play like his life depended on it, not anymore.

It reminded him oddly of Toya Akira.

Of course, that didn't mean Hikaru was about to loose. He might not consider Go the meaning of life and universe and everything, but _his Go_ was still nothing to sneeze at.

The game continued, moving to middle and through it and continuing all the way to the end of Yose until all the moves that could be played had been played and they were left with a full board, dozens of connected and interrupted patterns, clusters that had lived and some which had died, and territories which had to be counted.

"Hell yeah!" Hikaru grinned once he had finished taking in the final result. "Half a moku win for me, and thousand extra yen to my pocket."

"Yeah, like you can do much with a thousand yen," Waya muttered, still scowling at the board between them. With a grunt, he folded his arms and leaned back. "Well… you're not bad, Shindo."

"Not bad? He's _good_," the other insei said, leaning forward and peering at the Goban. "You could be insei – you could be taking the pro-exam," he added, looking at Hikaru. "Well, with skill like this you're probably planning to, right?"

"Nnnope," Hikaru said while gleefully stuffing the money to his wallet. "I've got other plans."

"Oh. Well, you're still pretty good for an amateur," the other insei said and then smiled. "Would you play me next?"

"Hmmm," Hikaru considered it. He ought to be heading home to sort out the paperwork for Saturday but… what the hell. "Sure," he said, and shifted seats. "You wanna bet too?" he asked, grinning.

"I'll pass," the insei said and smiled. "I'm Isumi, by the way. Isumi Sinichiro."

"Shindo Hikaru," Hikaru nodded, and picked some stones to Nigiri.

xx

Little more Go. Also, just so you know, I have no idea what it's like, for actors and stuntmen and whatnot. I'm just coming up with stuff and probably none of it is actually accurate.

My apologies for possible grammar errors.


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